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GRIFFITH  J.   GRIFFITH. 
Secretary  and  Treasurer  of  Prison  Reform  League. 


CRIME  AND 
CRIMINALS 


BY 


The  Prison  Reform  League 


PRISON  REFORM  LEAGUE 
PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

443  South  Main  St.,  LOS  ANGELES,  CAL. 

(Copyrighted) 


COPYRIGHT,  1910, 

BY 

GRIFFITH   J.    GRIFFITH 


Co 

Heo  ^.  Colgtoj), 

THE  WORLD'S  GREAT  INTERPRETER  OF  THE  IM- 
MUTABLE LAW  OF  INHERITANCE  — WHEREBY 
LIKE   SPRINGS   FROM   LIKE,   LOVE  BEGET- 
TING LOVE  AND  HATE  A  PROGENY  OF 
HATE  — THIS   BOOK   IS   DEDICATED, 
WITH   PROFOUND  RESPECT, 

BY 

THE  PRISON  REFORM 
LEAGUE. 


"/  believe,  and  I  regret  to  say  it,  that  throughout  this 
country  the  administration  of  the  Criminal  Law  and  the 
prosecution  of  crime  are  a  disgrace  to  our  civilization." 

WM.  H.  TAFT. 
President  of  the  United  States. 


SUMMARY  OF  CONTENTS 


Chapter  I.  CRIME  INCREASES.  —  Police  testimony  unre- 
liable —  Evidence  furnished  Congress  —  How  experts  view 
situation  —  European  and  British  statistics  —  Chicago  and 
New  York  —  McClure  on  lawlessness  in  United  States  — 
Bushnell,  Lydston  and  Altgeld  on  cost  of  crime  —  Losses 
beyond  computation  —  Ruled  by  organized  criminals. 

Chapter  II.  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  —  Revenge  the 
primitive  philosophy — England's  experience  —  John  How- 
ard and  reform  school  —  Demoralizing  example  set  by 
State  —  Appeals  to  violence  encouraged  —  Parent  of  lynch- 
ing—  Human  life  cheapened  —  Clergy  and  Mosaic  dis- 
pensation —  Tolstoy  and  Stolypine  —  Where  death  pen- 
alty is  abolished  —  Innocent  victims  —  Juries  given  dis- 
cretion —  Comparative  statistics  of  homicides  and  execu- 
tions —  President  Taft's  criticism  —  Cost  of  murder 
trials  —  Chicago  Tribune  statistics  —  Economic  objec- 
tions reviewed  —  Former  President  Roosevelt  and  Mrs. 
Place. 

Chapter  III.  DETERRENCE  WORKED  TO  THE  LIM- 
IT.—  Illinois  State  Reformatory  at  Pontiac  —  Lincoln 
Asylum  for  Feeble-minded — ^  Illinois  Asylum  for  Insane 
Criminals  —  Ohio  State  Penitentiary  at  Columbus  —  Tor- 
tures, including  water  cure  and  "humming  bird"  — 
"Turn  of  the  Balance"  —  Penitentiary  at  Chester,  111. — 
Whipped  to  death  in  Texas. 

Chapter  IV.  SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT.  (By 
Griffith  J.  Griffith).  First  humiliating  experiences  — 
The  jute-mill  —  Taken  before  the  warden  —  Room-mates 
classified  —  Important  rule  violated  —  How  convicts  are 
fed  —  Harsh  officers  in  charge  —  Sick  treated  brutally  — 
Wantonly  cruel  order  —  Political  influence  —  Operated  on 
spy  system  —  Three  crippled  for  life  by  strait-jacket  — 
Tortured  for  days  until  helpless  wreck  —  Jobbed  by  the 
guard  —  Dragged  to  the  dungeon  — "Insane  owing  to  soli- 
tary   confinement  —  Cries    of    anguish    audible  —  Decency 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


ignored  —  Hygiene  at  a  discount  —  Executions  —  Reading 
to  prisoners  —  Degeneracy  winked  at  —  Prefers  death  to 
recommitment  —  As  compared  with  Japan  —  Report  by 
legislative  committee. 

Chapter  V.  SAN  QUENTIN  AS  A  FEMALE  PRIS- 
ONER KNEW  IT.  — Women's  quarters  —  Unsanitary 
conditions  —  School  of  vice  —  Clothing  and  bill  of  fare  — 
Negresses  favored  by  matron  —  Abuse  of  white  women  — 
Eighty-three  days  in  the  "  solitary  "  —  Hurried  to  death 
in  insane  asylum  —  Dies  mysteriously  —  Compromising 
letter  abstracted  —  111  treatment  of  the  sick — President 
of  W'.  C.  T.  U.  testifies  —  Scandal  attending  visit  of  offi- 
cials—  Conditions  in  Japan  —  Matron  resigns. 

Chapter  VL  SOUTHERN  CONVICT  CAMPS.  — Geor- 
gia's lease  system  —  Testimony  of  Col.  Byrd  —  Leading 
features  of  peonage  —  On  the  chain  gang  —  Public  in- 
dignation forces  change  —  Exposures  in  other  Southern 
States  —  Robbed  by  monopolists  —  Brutal  whippings  and 
murders  —  Huge  profits  realized  —  Railroaded  to  jail  — 
Irresponsible  despotism. 

Chapter  VII.  BREAKING  THE  WILL.  —  Convicts  not 
naturally  turbulent  —  Life  in  Sing  Sing  —  Graft  by  prison 
officials  —  "  No.  9009  "  —  Rules  in  U.  S.  penitentiary  — 
Helplessness  of  discharged  convict  —  Evil  effects  of  cor- 
poral punishment  —  Flogging  in  Jefferson  City  peniten- 
tiary—  Driven  back  to  crime. 

Chapter  VIII.  DETERRENCE  BY  THE  POLICE.  —  New 
York  and  London  —  Personal  liberty  in  England  —  Chi- 
cago criticised  —  "Golden  Rule"  in  Cleveland,  O.  —  Po- 
lice powers  defined  —  Gaynor  on  lawlessness  of  police  — 
"  Third  degree  "  vigorously  attacked  —  Los  Angeles  au- 
thorities accused  —  St.  Louis  indignant  —  New  York 
methods  denounced  —  South  joins  in  protest —  "  Bench 
and  Bar" — :  Extortion  by  officers  —  White  Slave  traffic  — 
Lincoln  Steffens  on  Pittsburg  —  Inspector  McCann's 
trial  —  Dynamite  bombs  exploded  —  Kennan  scores  San 
Francisco  —  McClure  describes  conditions  —  Gen.  Theo- 
dore A.  Bingham's  experiences. 


SUMMARY  OF  CONTENTS 


Chapter  IX.  THE  FEE  SYSTEM.  — Operated  for  revenue 
only  —  Condemned  by  American  Prison  Association  — 
Examples  from  Southern  California  —  Unemployed  habit- 
ually arrested  —  Prevalent  throughout  country — Upheld 
by  politicians  —  Prison  worker's  experience — Special  re- 
wards for  captures  —  Denounced  by  New  York  State 
Prison  Association  —  "  The  Beast  and  the  Jungle." 

Chapter  X.  COUNTY  AND  CITY  JAILS.  —  Inmates 
largely  youths  —  Commitments  in  California  —  Bread- 
winners in  custody  —  Degeneracy  rampant  —  Full  report 
by  American  Prison  Association  —  Sanitary  conditions 
infamous  —  No  provisions  for  exercise — Examples  of 
overcrowding — Presumed  to  be  innocent  —  London's  sta- 
tion houses  —  Summons  sufficient  —  Prisoners  of  poverty. 

Chapter  XL  WHAT  GOOD  DOES  IT  DO?  — Increase  of 
homicide  in  United  States  —  Figures  given  by  Arena, 
Chicago  Tribune,  McClure's,  etc.  —  Degrading  civiliza- 
tion —  Southern  cities  lead  in  violence  —  London's  peace- 
ful record  —  Kill  to  avoid  arrest^  Suicide,  insanity  and 
alcoholism  —  Capital  punishment  and  lynchings  —  Reac- 
tion toward  brutal  sentences  —  Murder,  the  national 
crime  —  Where  prison  reform  thrives  and  languishes  — 
Primitive  sections  show  most  homicides  —  Records  of 
States  compared  —  Scientists  as  pioneers. 

Chapter  XII.  PROBATION,  PAROLE  AND  THE  IN- 
DETERMINATE SENTENCE.—  Birth  of  scientific 
criminology  —  Old  and  new  schools  contrasted  — 
Crime  the  effect  of  environment,  past  and  present  — 
Classification  of  criminals  —  Cesare  Lombroso — No  ex- 
cuse for  vindictiveness  —  Leaders  in  probation  —  Pro- 
vision for  families  —  Federal  government  grouped  with 
backward  States  —  Opposition  of  prison  officials  —  Judge 
Cleland's  Chicago  record  —  Parole  distinguished  from 
probation  —  Indiana,  Cleveland,  O.,  and  Elmira,  N.  Y., 
reformatory  —  California's  experience — Principle  of  in- 
determinate sentence  —  Adopted  by  many  States  —  In- 
fluence of  new  philosophy  demonstrated. 

Chapter  XIII.  JUVENILE  DELINQUENTS.  — Extension 
of  probation  principle  —  Women  entitled  to  credit  — 
Grows  rapidly  in   favor  —  Judge  Lindsey's  re-election  — 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


Increase  of  crime  among  youth  —  Aged  eleven  and  hunted 
by  police  —  Eight  years  old  and  "  prodigy  of  crime  "  — 
Old  style  reformatories  —  Slays  mother  in  revenge  —  "  In 
Humanity's  Machine  "  —  Not  prosecuted  as  criminals  — 
Immigrants  exonerated  —  Tracing  crime  to  its  causes  — 
South    becoming    active  —  Literature    on    subject. 

Chapter  XIV.  CONCLUSION.  —  Deterrent  principle  in- 
dicted in  all  its  main  features  —  Violence  begets  violence 
and  America's  national  crime  is  murder  —  Victories  won 
by  modern  school  —  More  than  charity  required  —  War- 
dens meet  in  secret  —  Reports  criticised  —  Cleveland 
Farm  Colony  —  Tolstoy's  philosophy  exemplified  —  Re- 
forms in  penitentiaries  —  Fund  for  prisoners  of  poverty. 

Appendix.  LECTURE  DELIVERED  BY  COL.  GRIF- 
FITH J.  GRIFFITH. —  Tours  of  investigation  —  Pris- 
oners terrorized  and  humiliated  —  Oldest  code  of  laws  — 
Elmira  reformatory  —  Parole  and  indeterminate  sen- 
tence—  Overcrowding  in  San  Quentin  —  Their  home 
treasures  burned  —  Crippled  for  life  by  strait-jacket  — 
Instances  of  torture  —  Causes  and  cost  of  crime  —  Cali- 
fornia commitments  —  Officials  untrained  —  Chained  in 
dungeons  —  Heartless  physicians  —  Tragedies  of  the 
past  —  Life's  humorous  side  —  Not  wicked  but  weak  — 
Crime  and  disease-breeding  conditions  —  The  discharged 
convict  —  Prisoners'  Aid  Societies  —  Recidivists  swarm  — 
Corruptly  sentenced  for  life  —  Crying  for  mercy  — 
Changes  advocated  —  Objects  and  work  of  Prison  Re- 
form League. 


CHAPTER  I. 

CRIME    INCREASES 

This  book  deals  with  crime  and  the  treatment  of 
criminals.  It  states  facts  of  vital  importance  to  every 
man  and  woman,  and  adds  deductions  that  boldly 
challenge  contradiction.  The  facts  have  been  gath- 
ered from  the  best  governmental  and  official  reports 
available,  and  from  noted  writers  who  have  made  this 
field  their  special  study.  The  deductions  stand  on 
their  own  logical  merits,  but  are  supported  by  numer- 
ous quotations.  The  work  has  grown  naturally  out 
of  the  researches  set  on  foot  by  the  Prison  Reform 
League,  and,  while  submitted  to  the  public  at  large, 
is  designed  more  particularly  for  the  use  of  those 
whose  profession  is  the  pen,  the  pulpit  or  the  plat- 
form, in  the  hope  that  it  may  promote  a  more  intelli- 
gent discussion  of  a  subject  that  is  calling  imperiously 
for  thorough  ventilation. 

The  unwelcome  fact  that  crime  —  especially  in  its 
more  violent  forms  and  among  the  young  —  is  increas- 
ing steadily ;  that  it  is  threatening  to  bankrupt  the 
nation,  and  that  it,  and  its  treatment,  are  carrying  us 
back  to  barbarism,  are  set  out  in  uncompromising 
terms,  with  the  evidence  attached.  The  method  by 
which  the  old  school  of  criminology  is  endeavoring  to 
solve  the  problem  is  then  examined,  that  method  be- 
ing punishment,  based  on  the  philosophy  of  revenge 
and  deterrence  —  hate  and  fear.  Capital  punishment, 
torture,  conditions  in  our  penitentiaries,  reformatories 
and  convict  camps,  the  helplessness  of  the  discharged 
convict,  county  and  city  jails,  the  making  of  illegal 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


arrests  and  the  administration  of  the  "  third  deerree," 
the  fee  system  —  under  which  the  income  of  officers 
depends  on  the  number  of  persons  they  arrest  —  and 
the  notorious  poHce  corruption  resulting  from  all  these 
factors  are  considered,  with  the  evidence  attached. 

The  position  of  the  new  school  of  criminology  now 
forging  to  the  front  is  then  explained  in  the  simplest 
terms  the  writers  could  command,  and  the  radical  de- 
partures it  involves  examined  in  detail.  Under  this 
head  comes  consideration  of  such  measures  as  proba- 
tion, the  indeterminate  sentence  and  other  reforms 
with  which  the  reading  public  is  rapidly  becoming 
familiar.  Special  pains  has  been  taken  to  demon- 
strate that  these  are  the  inevitable  outcome  of  a  new 
school  of  philosophy,  which  refuses  to  confine  its  at- 
tention to  the  mere  fact  that  a  crime  has  been  com- 
mitted atid  insists  on  penetrating  to  the  causes  of  the 
crime.  Thus  crime  and  the  treatment  of  criminals 
are  held  up  to  inspection  as  an  inseparable  part  of  a 
world-wide  economic  and  political  problem.  And  spe- 
cial emphasis  is  laid  on  the  assertion  that  the  subject- 
matter  of  this  book  carries  us  to  the  heart  of  the  social 
question,  for  attention  must  be  directed  first  to  the 
point  at  which  the  social  machinery  has  broken  down 
most  conspicuously. 


The  statements  of  chiefs  of  police  that  the  volume 
of  crime  is  diminishing,  thanks  to  their  improved 
facilities  for  apprehending  malefactors,  are  not  to  be 
credited.  In  the  first  place  they  are  interested  wit- 
nesses, since  their  positions  and  prestige  depend  on 
convincing  their  employers  that  they  are  more  than 
earning  their  salaries.     In  the  second  place  the  repu- 


CRIME  INCREASES 


tation  for  veracity  enjoyed  by  the  police  is  of  the 
very  worst.  This  is  so  universally  conceded  that  it 
appears  almost  unnecessary  to  cite  authorities  in  sup- 
port of  the  statement,  but  we  quote  from  an  article 
in  the  North  American  Review  written  in  1901  by 
Hon.  Frank  Moss,  former  commissioner  of  the  police 
department  of  New  York.  The  publication  is  one  of 
unquestionable  standing;  the  writer  held  a  position 
that  put  him  in  the  closest  touch  with  facts,  and  he 
wrote  immediately  after  the  Lexow'  investigation, 
which  had  turned  on  a  flood  of  light. 

The  article  begins  with  these  words :  "  The  cor- 
ruption of  the  police  force  of  New  York  is  a  fact  that 
nobody  in  the  city  denies  seriously.  It  is  believed 
throughout  the  nation  and  over  the  world.  .  .  . 
With  general  unanimity  the  people  lay  the  derelictions 
of  the  police  force  to  great  financial  and  political 
corruption ;  the  nation  and  the  world  approve  the 
verdict."  Dealing  directly  with  the  all-important 
question  of  veracity  —  all-important  because  it  is  the 
policeman's  evidence  that  frequently  convicts  —  Mr. 
Moss  says :  "  It  is  most  sad  to  realize  that  the  police 
force  as  a  whole  has  small  reputation  for  truth.  De- 
generation in  moral  character  has  made  it  necessary 
to  develop  a  phenomenal  power  for  concealing  and 
denying  the  truth.  The  good  men  are  forced  into  this 
position  by  brute  force  and  physical  fear.  They  be- 
lieve that  the  man  who  tells  the  secrets  of  the  depart- 
ment is  doomed  to  persecution  and  to  ruin." 

In  an  article  in  the  Century  Magazine  of  Septem- 
ber, 1909,  another  New  York  police  commissioner, 
William  McAdoo,  bears  similarly  unwelcome  testi- 
mony, saying  in  his  opening  sentence :  "  On  investi- 
gation I  now  find  that  the  high  estimation  in  which 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


virtually  all  Englishmen  hold  the  London  policeman 
is  in  sharp  contrast  with  the  reputation  of  the  New 
York  force  in  both  English  and  American  newspa- 
pers." And  at  the  date  of  this  writing  yet  a  third  late 
New  York  police  commissioner,  Gen.  Theodore  A. 
Bingham,  is  deluging  the  magazines  with  articles  in 
which  he  explains  that  he  was  dismissed  from  office 
for  his  strenuous  attempts  to  rescue  the  police  force 
from  the  clutches  of  Tammany.  He  states  specifically 
(Century  Magazine,  September,  1909,)  that  "any 
party  that  has  the  control  and  direction  of  the  police 
at  primary  and  general  elections  has  an  enormous 
advantage  over  its  opponents,"  and  that  in  New  York 
city  Tammany  has  such  control. 

To  this  all-corroding  influence  of  politics  we  shall 
recur  again  and  again,  but  we  deem  it  at  this  point 
quite  unnecessary  to  multiply  quotations  or  pile  up 
evidence  on  this  head.  New  York  does  not  stand 
alone  in  this  respect.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  the 
second  largest  city  in  the  world,  and  its  example  has 
enormous  weight  throughout  the  country. 

As  against  the  entirely  unreliable  statements  of 
members  of  the  police  force  we  set  the  result  of  the 
careful  investigation  of  this  particular  subject  made 
recently  by  congress.  Under  its  special  direction 
Arthur  McDonald,  specialist  in  the  United  States 
bureau  of  education,  superintended  the  compiling  of 
a  report  which  was  submitted  to  the  senate  by  Piatt 
of  New  York,  December  3,  1902.  It  opens  with 
this  statement:  "  It  may  be  said,  with  few  exceptions, 
that  within  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years  there  has 
been  an  increase  (relative  to  population)  in  crime, 
suicide,    insanity    and    other    forms    of    abnormality. 


CRIME  INCREASES 


This  is  the  general  verdict  of  the  official  statistics  of 
the  leading  countries  of  the  world." 

This  report  runs  to  fifty-five  pages,  most  of  which 
are  occupied  with  tables  of  official  figures  covering 
the  United  States,  Great  Britain,  France,  Germany, 
Austria,  Italy,  Belgium,  Bavaria  and  Algeria.  It  was 
submitted  in  connection  with  a  bill  to  establish  a 
laboratory  for  the  study  of  the  criminal,  pauper  and 
defective  classes ;  a  plan  that  had  received  the  official 
indorsement  of  three  foreign  sociological  societies,  six 
national,  twenty-two  state  and  three  city  medical  so- 
cieties, four  state  bar  associations,  forty  ministerial 
bodies  and  several  other  organizations.  Reference  is 
made  in  an  appendix  that  takes  up  more  than  twelve 
pages  to  a  list  of  modern  and  authoritative  works  on 
criminology.  In  a  word,  the  report  is  to  be  consid- 
ered exceptionally  reliable,  and  it  opens  bluntly  with 
the  statement  we  have  quoted. 

It  is  to  be  remembered,  moreover,  that  statistics  -s 
now  an  exact  science,  and  that,  while  figures  pertain- 
ing to  small  areas  are  often  misleading  on  account  of 
special  local  factors,  when  applied  on  a  scale  that 
covers  two  continents  they  render  results  on  which 
we  can  calculate  with  confidence.  In  fact,  until  the 
development  of  statistics  as  an  exact  science  the  study 
of  criminal  problems  was  necessarily  little  more  than 
guess  work,  and  only  after  facts  had  been  accumu- 
lated on  a  comprehensive  scale,  and  the  scientific  con- 
clusions to  which  they  led  clearly  demonstrated,  was 
it  possible  for  the  new  school  of  criminology  to  come 
into  existence. 

Modern  invention  has  given  the  authorities  enor- 
mous facilities  for  the  suppression  of  crime.  Bril- 
liantly lighted  streets,  electric  alarms  and  a  thousand 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


and  one  appliances  for  the  protection  of  treasure  have 
rendered  the  burglar's  task  incredibly  more  difficult. 
The  telephone,  telegraph  and  automobile  arouse  the 
entire  neighborhood  within  a  few  minutes  of  the  per- 
petration of  a  crime,  and  bring  to  the  aid  of  the  police 
hundreds  of  amateur  detectives.  Everything  seems  to 
be  in  favor  of  the  authorities  and  against  the  criminal, 
and  yet  crime  is  unquestionably  on  the  increase.  The 
philosophy  of  deterrence  is  pushed  to  its  utmost;  jails 
are  filled  to  overflowing  and  conducted  with  such  bar- 
barity that  their  condition  is  a  standing  stock  in  trade 
for  newspapers  when  they  run  short  of  stories. 
Periodically,  when  hard  times  or  severe  weather  swell 
the  crop  of  highway  robberies,  judges  attempt  to  meet 
the  situation  by  the  severest  sentences.  Yet  crime, 
both  against  the  person  and  property,  is  undoubtedly 
on  the  increase.  Since  this  is  the  backbone  of  the 
entire  question,  constituting  a  problem  that  society 
must  solve  if  it  is  to  avoid  dissolution,  we  do  not  con- 
tent ourselves  with  reference  to  the  report  already 
mentioned,  but  cite  the  opinions  of  recognized  experts. 
Dr.  G.  Frank  Lydston  is  an  authority  of  the  high- 
est rank.  His  work,  "  The  Diseases  of  Society  ",  is 
standard,  and  in  it  (p.  31)  he  says:  "Modern  sta- 
tistics, however,  tend  to  show  that  crime  is  now  in- 
creasing faster  than  population.  A  comparison  of  the 
census  of  1850  with  the  census  of  1890  showed  that 
the  population  had  increased  170  per  cent,  (he  is 
confining  himself  to  the  United  States),  while  the  pro- 
portion of  criminals  had  increased  445  per  cent.  It 
must  be  acknowledged  that  the  actual  increase  of 
criminality  should  be  discounted  somewhat  by  legis- 
lative increase  of  crimes.  Murder,  to  be  sure,  was 
once  frequent,  and  capital  crimes  were  numerous,  but 


CRIME  INCREASES 


the  total  number  of  acts  that  were  legally  considered 
crimes  was  small.  In  modern  life  many  acts  that 
were  taken  for  granted  in  older  systems  of  civilization 
are  pronounced  crimes.  Comparing  present  statistics 
with  the  more  recent  past,  this  source  of  fallacy  is, 
however,  of  little  moment." 

It  will  be  noticed  that  Dr.  Lydston,  as  an  impartial 
investigator,  makes  allowance  for  the  fact  that  legis- 
latures and  city  councils  are  constantly  adding  to  the 
number  of  acts  for  doing  any  one  of  which  the  citizen 
may  find  himself  within  the  clutches  of  the  law.  He 
considers,  however,  that  these  additional  arrests  do 
not  materially  affect  the  grand  total  from  which  the 
deduction  that  crime  is  on  the  increase  is  drawn,  and 
we  shall  show  hereafter  that  it  is  in  the  most  serious 
class  of  crimes  that  the  growth  has  been  most  marked. 
Nevertheless  in  calling  attention  to  the  feverish  ac- 
tivity shown  by  the  governing  bodies  of  today  in  the 
matter  of  multiplying  laws  he  touches  a  weakness 
that  has  attracted  general  notice  from  criminologists. 
For  example,  W.  D.  Morrison,  in  his  "  Crime  and  Its 
Causes  ",  takes  special  occasion  to  utter  this  warning : 
"  In  initiating  legislation  of  a  far-reaching  coercive 
character  politicians  should  remember  far  more  than 
they  do  at  present  that  the  effect  of  these  acts  will  be 
to  fill  the  jails  and  to  put  the  prison  taint  upon  a 
greater  number  of  the  population."  This  tendency  to 
multiply  offenses  is  undoubtedly  a  reversion  to  an 
earlier  type,  the  general  rule,  as  given  by  Havelock 
Ellis  in  "  The  Criminal  ",  being  that  "  the  more  archaic 
the  code  the  fuller  and  the  minuter  is  its  penal  legisla- 
tion." Tacitus  passed  a  similar  criticism  on  pagan 
Rome  shortly  before  her  fall,  saying :  "  The  more 
corrupt  grows  the  state  the  more  laws  multiply." 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


In  the  report  to  congress  alluded  to  above  it  is  laid 
down  that  crime  has  increased,  in  proportion  to  popu- 
lation, throughout  the  civilized  world,  "  with  few  ex- 
ceptions ".  The  United  States,  Germanv  and  Italy  all 
show  a  black  record,  and  particularly  as  to  crimes  of 
violence,  as  will  be  explained  hereafter,  but  Austria 
claims  that  there  was  a  decrease  in  her  prison  popu- 
lation and  England  and  Wales  declare  themselves 
freer  from  crime.  The  tables  for  the  two  last  men- 
tioned countries  show  that  in  the  twenty  years  from 
1874  to  1893  the  percentage  of  those  tried  in  England 
and  Wales  for  indictable  offenses  fell  from  217  per 
100,000  to  194,  and  analysis  discloses  the  fact  that 
the  shrinkage  was  due  to  the  diminution  of  crimes 
against  the  person,  which  had  shrunk  from  a  percent- 
age of  7.5  to  one  of  4.9.  On  the  other  hand  the  per- 
centage of  crimes  against  property  had  risen  from 
5.82  to  6.47,  and  crimes  against  morality  were  said 
to  have  increased.  Morrison,  however,  who  is  a  lead- 
ing authority  on  crime  in  England,  considers  that  the 
alleged  diminution  is  an  illusion,  and  submits  elabo- 
rate figures  in  proof  of  his  general  contention.  His 
statement  is  that  "  nearly  all  the  chief  statisticians 
abroad  (in  Europe)  tell  the  same  tale  with  respect  to 
the  growth  of  crime  on  the  continent  ",  and  he  adds 
that  a  similar  story  comes  from  the  Antipodes.  Now 
comes  the  report  of  the  commissioners  of  prisons 
showing  that  even  in  Great  Britain  crime  is  on  the 
increase,  the  number  of  convictions  for  various  of- 
fenses in  1908  being  given  at  176,602,  while  this 
year  the  total  has  grown  already — October,  1909 — to 
184,901.  It  is  noted  particularly  that  in  the  agricul- 
tural districts  there  has  been  an  increase  of  25  per 


CRIME  INCREASES 


cent,  in  vagrancy  cases,  and  significant  attention  is 
directed  to  the  alarming  number  of  the  unemployed. 

Frederick  A.  Wines,  whose  "  Punishment  and  Ref- 
ormation "  is  considered  in  the  United  States  a  leading 
work,  agrees  that  crime  is  on  the  increase,  and  so  does 
David  A.  Wells,  an  American  economist  of  great  note. 

Setting  aside,  for  the  moment,  governmental  figures, 
which  deal  with  countries  as  a  whole  and  are  there- 
fore productive  of  the  most  reliable  general  results, 
since  one  local  fluctuation  offsets  another,  Lydston 
takes  the  two  largest  cities  in  the  United  States,  Chi- 
cago and  New  York.  Writing  of  the  former  in  1906 
he  quotes  a  report  then  recently  submitted  by  the 
Illinois  state's  attorney  as  follows :  "In  volume  of 
business  and  number  of  convictions  the  criminal  court 
of  Cook  county  is  the  greatest  criminal  tribunal  in 
the  world.  More  prisoners  are  arraigned  at  its  bar 
than  in  any  similar  court  in  the  world,  including  Lon- 
don, with  a  population  of  over  four  million.  In  the 
latter  city,  during  the  year  1898,  the  total  number  of 
convictions  for  felonies  and  misdemeanors  was  2659. 
The  total  number  in  Cook  "county  froni  March,  1898, 
to  March,  1899,  was  2819;  the  following  year  it  was 
2837.  During  the  year  1898  there  were  3234  persons 
arraigned  in  the  London  court,  while  from  Septem- 
ber, 1899,  (the  court  year)  the  total  number  of  indict- 
ments found  in  Cook  county  was  3501.  From  De- 
cember, 1896,  to  October,  1900,  the  grand  juries 
passed  upon  16,518  cases,  being  an  average  of  over 
four  thousand  cases  each  year,  and  resulting  in  an 
average  of  over  three  thousand  indictments  a  year." 

Of  New  York  Lydston  says :  "  The  city  of  New 
York  has  grown  wickeder,  as  shown  by  the  last  esti- 
mate for  ten  years.     The  annual  report  of  the  city 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


magistrates  showed  that  the  population  of  the  city  had 
increased  33  1-3  per  cent,  in  the  ten  years  from  1886 
to  1896,  while  crime  had  increased  50  per  cent.  Nine 
magistrates  tried  112,160;  held  73,537  defendants, 
and  discharged  the  other  38,623.  Arrests  for  all 
offenses  had  increased  50  per  cent.,  with  an  increase 
of  nearly  90  per  cent,  in  felonies.  In  1886  the  felonies 
reached  7021.  Female  prisoners  more  than  kept  pace 
with  the  general  average,  increasing  from  412  in  1886 
to  722  in  1896." 

We  shall  show  hereafter  that  New  York  and  Chi- 
cago are  far  frorri  leading  the  country  in  crime,  m 
proportion  to  their  population. 

As  a  concise  statement  of  the  truth  we  wish  to  drive 
home  at  the  very  incipiency  of  our  task,  we  quote  the 
following  introduction  by  S.  S.  McClure  to  his  article 
on  "  The  Increase  of  Lawlessness  in  the  United 
States  ",  published  in  McClure' s  Magazine  of  Decem- 
ber, 1904.  "  I  print  herewith,"  he  says,  "  comments 
on  the  prevalence  of  crime  and  lawlessness  in  the 
United  States,  taken  almost  at  random  from  repre- 
sentative and  serious  newspapers,  and  from  the  pub- 
lished statements  of  judges  and  citizens.  I  also  print 
the  statistics  of  murder  and  homicides  in  the  United 
States,  which  have  been  collected  for  twenty-three 
years  by  the  Chicago  Tribune.  These  statistics  con- 
firm the  general  impression  regarding  the  rapid  and 
alarming  increase  of  lawlessness  in  our  country.  At 
present  there  are  four  and  a  half  times  as  many  mur- 
ders and  homicides  for  each  million  of  people  in  the 
United  States  as  there  were  in  1881." 

Apart  from  the  statements  of  witnesses  so  deeply 
prejudiced  as  are  chiefs  of  police,  it  is  true  that  cer- 
tain authorities,  such  as  Prof.  Henderson  of  the  Chi- 


CRIME  INCREASES 


cago  University,  and  President  Eugene  Smith  of  the 
Prison  Association  of  New  York,  have  maintained 
that  the  statistics  showing  the  growth  of  crime  are 
misleading.  The  weight  of  authority,  however,  is  dis- 
tinctly against  them,  and  the  United  States  census 
tells  an  alarming  story  that  seems  to  admit  of  no  con- 
tradiction. According  to  its  figures  the  ratio  of 
prisoners  to  population  rose  continuously  from  one 
to  every  3442  of  the  population,  in  the  decade  from 
1850  to  i860,  to  one  to  every  757,  in  the  decade  from 
1890  to  1900. 

It  is  submitted,  therefore,  that  the  testimony  of 
unprejudiced  experts,  backed  by  reliable  statistics, 
establishes  the  perilous  fact  that,  despite  educational 
advantages,  the  creation  of  wealth  on  a  scale  impossi- 
ble for  our  ancestors  even  to  have  conceived  of,  and 
the  general  refining  influences  that  are  supposed  to 
attend  civilization,  crime  is  on  the  increase.  That  it 
is  intimately  connected  with  the  alarming  growth  of 
insanity  and  suicide,  with  which  the  report  previously 
alluded  to  properly  brackets  it,  is  admitted  by  all  ex- 
perts, and  the  crime  problem,  therefore,  if  not  speed- 
ily solved,  meanS'  the  character  ruin  of  the  nation, 
with  the  downfall  that  inevitably  follows  the  destruc- 
tion of  individual  and  collective  character.  That  it  is 
also  at  the  present  moment  driving  the  nation  to 
bankruptcy  is  the  opinion  of  so  eminent  an  authority 
as  Prof.  Charles  J.  Bushnell  of  Washington,  D.  C, 
who  calculates  that  as  a  nation  we  are  spending  no 
less  than  six  billions  of  dollars  ($6,000,000,000)  an- 
nually for  the  suppression  of  crime  and  are  finding  It 
more  and  more  incapable  of  being  suppressed.  Prof. 
Lydston,  however,  puts  the  figure  at  only  five  billions, 
and  generally  we  think  it  may  be  said  that  the  avenues 


12 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

through  which  money  disappears  in  the  detection,  trial 
and  conviction  of  prisoners,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
maintenance  of  armies  of  men  paid  to  prevent  the 
commission  of  crime,  are  so  numerous  that  it  is 
impossible  to  compute  with  anything  approaching 
accuracy.  The  question  is,  however,  one  of  such 
universal  interest  that  we  examine  it  in  somewhat 
greater  detail. 

Quite  recently  the  Massachusetts  Prison  Associa- 
tion has  published  a  pamphlet  in  which  it  claims  that 
the  crime  bill  of  that  state,  paid  in  state,  county  and 
municipal  taxes,  exceeds  $6,500,000  a  year,  being 
larger  than  any  other  except  that  of  education.  This 
calculation,  however,  was  arrived  at  by  adding  up 
merely  the  cost  of  salaries  and  maintenance  of  prisons 
and  reformatories ;  and  this  seems  to  omit  many  most 
important  factors. 

Here  is  a  statement  by  the  late  J,  P.  Altgeld, 
formerly  governor  of  Illinois,  which  takes  a  somewhat 
wider  range :  "  No  man,"  he  says,  "  can  examine  the 
great  penal  system  of  this  country  without  being- 
astounded  at  its  magnitude,  its  cost  and  its  unsatis- 
factory results.  There  are  in  the  United  States  up- 
ward of  2200  county  jails,  several  hundred  lockups 
or  police  stations ;  between  fifty  and  sixty  peniten- 
tiaries, with  workshops,  machinery,  etc.  The  first  cost 
of  the  erection  of  all  these  buildings  and  shops  has 
been  estimated  at  upward  of  $500,000,000,  which  is 
dead  capital,  the  interest  upon  which  sum  alone  an- 
nually will  amount  to  $25,000,000.  To  this  must  be 
added  the  sums  annually  appropriated  out  of  the  treas- 
ury to  feed  the  prisoners,  pay  the  officers,  judicial  and 
executive,  and  keep  up  and  maintain  all  of  these  in- 
stitutions, which  sums  have  been  estimated  at  upward 


CRIME  INCREASES  13 

of  $50,000,000,  to  say  nothing  of  the  costs  paid  by 
the  accused.  There  are,  in  addition  to  the  many 
thousands  of  policemen  and  detectives,  about  70,000 
constables  in  this  country,  and  about  as  many  magis- 
trates. There  are  upward  of  2200  sheriffs,  and  in  the 
neighborhood  of   12,000  deputy  sheriffs. 

"  Then  come  the  grand  juries,  petit  juries,  judges 
and  lawyers ;  next  the  keepers  and  their  numerous 
assistants  for  all  of  these  prisons,  making  about  a 
million  of  men,  partly  or  wholly  supporting  their  fam- 
ilies from  this  source.  And,  as  I  am  on  the  list,  I 
may  speak  with  freedom  and  say  that,  as  a  rule,  they 
are  comfortable,  are  anxious  to  hold  on,  and  ready 
to  defend  the  system  which  gives  them  and  their  fam- 
ilies bread.  As  a  rule  keepers  of  prisons  like  to  see 
their  prisons  well  filled." 

It  will  be  noticed  that  many  new  factors  are  intro- 
duced in  the  foregoing  passage,  which  was  written 
about  nineteen  years  ago.  Since  then  the  population 
of  the  United  States  has  increased  materially,  and 
crime  has  grown  even  faster  than  the  population,  so 
that  the  estimate  of  a  million  men,  dependent  for  their 
livelihood  on  the  apprehension,  conviction  and  de- 
tention of  criminals,  would  be  today  considerably  be- 
low the  mark.  Suppose,  however,  that  we  put  it  at  a 
million,  for  the  sake  of  easy  figuring.  Probably  it 
would  be  conservative  to  calculate  that  these  men 
make  on  an  average  $1500  a  year,  which  gives  one  a 
billion  and  a  half. 

Wherever  that  abomination,  the  fee  system,  is  in 
operation  —  and  it  is  very  general  throughout  the 
country  —  it  is  almost  impossible  to  reach  any  approx- 
imate estimate  of  the  sums  made  by  constables  not 
only  from  arrest  fees,  but  also  from  mileage  charges 


14 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS ' 

and  other  incidentals  that  form  the  greater  part  of 
the  bill.  Here  in  Los  Angeles  county  constables  were 
reaping  so  rich  a  harvest  from  the  arrest  of  men  on 
all  sorts  of  charges  —  a  vast  proportion  of  which  were 
unquestionably  trumped  up  —  that  it  was  found  nec- 
essary to  limit  them  to  $1200  a  year.  But  how,  for 
example,  are  you  to  calculate  the  receipts  of  the 
sheriff's  office  in  Los  Angeles,  which  is  run  on  the  fee 
system,  and  is  admittedly  one  of  the  fattest  political 
plums,  the  net  profits  of  the  term  being  estimated 
worth  all  the  way  from  $50,000  to  $100,000?  What 
an  infamous  system ;  specially  designed,  one  would 
think,  for  the  miscarriage  of  justice  and  for  political 
corruption ! 

Men  universally  shrink  from  jury  service,  though 
one  must  make  an  exception  of  the  wretched  class 
that  constitutes  the  professional  jurymen,  eager  to 
serve  for  the  per  diem,  with  such  side  pickings  as  may 
develop.  How  are  you  to  estimate  the  loss  to  business 
men  that  the  passing  of  days  and  months  on  jury 
duty  entails?  And  above  all,  who  shall  sum  up  the 
loss  of  wealth,  from  which  all  of  us  would  benefit, 
involved  by  the  withdrawal  of  men  from  productive 
employment  and  their  devotion  to  destructive  lives  of 
crime,  with  the  detention  at  the  direct  expense  of  the 
public  which  almost  inevitably  follows?  To  calculate 
this  is  to  figure  out  a  great  portion  of  the  incalculable 
waste  of  a  civilization  which,  in  a  thousand  and  one 
ways,  diverts  human  energy  into  unproductive  or 
essentially  destructive  occupations. 

Consider  again  for  a  moment  this  army  of  a  million 
men  which  makes  its  living  by  the  apprehension,  con- 
viction and  detention  of  lawbreakers,  to  which  the 
taxpayers  contribute  at  least  a  billion  and  a  half  an- 


CRIME  INCREASES  15 

nually.  From  the  economist's  standpoint  every  mem- 
ber of  that  army  is  non-productive,  and  it  must  be 
remembered  that  as  a  class  these  men  are  sharp-witted 
and  energetic;  capable,  therefore,  of  much  wealth- 
producing  effort.  How  are  you  to  estimate  the  loss 
from  that  source  alone?  All  over  the  world  people 
submit  far  more  gracefully  to  indirect  than  to  direct 
taxation.  In  the  latter  case  they  know  to  a  penny  the 
bill  which  the  government  presents,  but  in  the  former 
they  can  only  conjecture  in  the  vaguest  manner.  So 
it  is  with  the  bills  presented  to  us  in  connection  with 
crime. 

At  this  writing  the  entire  country  is  watching  with 
breathless  interest  Tammany's  fight  for  life  in  New 
York  city,  and  the  struggle  has  been  made  the  occa- 
sion for  the  appearance  of  various  articles  in  the  lead- 
ing magazines  that  throw  an  awful  light  on  the  white 
slave  traffic  and  the  gambling  houses  and  saloons 
which  are  the  haunts  of  criminals  and  prostitutes. 
We  are  informed  that  New  York  city  has  become  the 
procuring  center  of  the  world;  that  from  it  ramify 
lines  of  communication  with  all  the  principal  cities  of 
the  United  States  and  points  so  distant  as  the  mining 
camps  of  South  Africa.  We  learn  that  the  trade  in 
female  flesh  is  organized  in  accord  with  the  most 
advanced  business  methods,  being  operated  at  an  im- 
mense number  of  centers  by  "  cadets  "  —  that  is  to  say, 
men  whose  business  is  seduction  and  who  live  by  the 
earnings  of  their  victims,  sold  at  established  market 
rates  to  the  syndicates  that  conduct  the  establishments 
in  which  they  find  their  final  home.  Startling  revela- 
tions are  made  as  to  the  profits  realized  by  the  police 
through  their  connivance  at  and  powerful  support  of 
this  vast  and  essentially  criminal  business. 


i6  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

Concluding  an  article  that  has  been  the  talk  ol  the 
east,  a  great  editor,  S.  S.  McClure,  of  McCltire's 
Magadne,  says :  "  There  is  one  thing  that  will 
change  this,  and  one  only.  The  local  government  of 
cities  must  be  taken  from  the  hands  of  criminals  and 
purveyors  of  vice."  The  entire  gist  of  his  indictment 
is  that  we  are  face  to  face  today  with  the  staggering 
fact  that  our  leading  cities  are  under  the  rule  of 
organized  crime. 

Who  can  estimate  the  economic  loss  involved  in 
such  conditions ;  the  vastness  of  the  burden  beneath 
which  the  producer  groans?  For  it  is  obvious,  being 
the  first  lesson  in  political  economy,  that  every  dollar 
that  finds  its  way  into  the  pockets  of  the  non-pro- 
ductive means  added  toil  to  the  actual  creators  of 
wealth.  In  saying  which  we  do  not  mean  that  only 
he  who  labors  with  his  hands  is  a  producer,  for  we 
rate  most  highly  the  productive  power  of  brains,  the 
value  of  invention,  of  new  suggestions  and  ideas. 
But  we  do  mean  that  everything  connected  with 
crime,  and  vices  so  flagrant  that  we  are  justified  in 
classing  them  with  crimes,  is  worse  than  non-produc- 
tive and  constitutes  an  incalculable  burden  laid  on  the 
brain  and  hand  workers  of  the  world. 

Startling,  therefore,  though  the  six-billion-dollar- 
a-year  estimate  of  the  cost  of  crime  given  by  Prof. 
Bushnell  may  appear,  it  may  well  prove  greatly  be- 
low the  actual  mark  if  tested  by  the  golden  rule  of 
political  economy. 

Here,  then,  is  a  drain  so  foul  that  it  is  poisoning 
the  very  life-blood  of  society.  Unfortunately  there 
are  large  numbers  of  persons  financially  interested  \n 
thwarting  all  inspection  of  the  drain,  and  by  wealth 
and   official   position    they    wield    immense    influence. 


CRIME  TNCREAvSES  17 

This,  however,  is  an  era  of  investigation,  and  even 
into  the  gloom  of  the  prison  some  rays  of  light  begin 
to  penetrate. 

Black  though  the  immediate  outlook  may  appear, 
and  herculean  though  the  task  of  reformation  un- 
questionably will  prove  to  be,  the  silver  lining  already 
begins  to  show  behind  the  cloud.  For,  certain  as  it 
is  that  no  substantial  improvement  can  be  effected 
until  public  opinion  shall  have  been  clamorously 
aroused,  it  is  equally  certain  that  no  iniquity  can  hold 
its  own  permanently  against  such  a  flood  of  hostile 
criticism  as  that  now  pouring  in  from  every  point. 
Modern  literature  has  marked  our  treatment  of  crime 
and  criminals  as  its  special  target,  and  therein  lies 
the  assurance  of  changes  fully  as  thorough  as  any 
advocated  in  these  pages. 


CHAPTER  II. 

CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT 

"  One  must  live,"  cried  a  poor  wretch,  pleading  be- 
fore M.  de  Talleyrand.  "  I  do  not  see  the  necessity," 
was  the  cold  reply.  Masked  in  courtly  phrases,  such 
as  "  law  and  order  must  be  maintained ",  or  "  the 
dignity  of  the  state  must  be  vindicated  ",  the  attitude 
of  the  old  school  of  criminology  has  been  from  time 
immemorial  that  of  M.  de  Talleyrand.  It  recognizes 
only  one  fact,  that  the  law  has  been  broken.  Why  it 
was  broken ;  what  the  causes  may  be  that  produce  a 
class  of  habitual  law-breakers  —  all  this  lies  beyond 
the  scope  of  its  inquiry. 

There  can  be  no  philosophy  of  criminology  so  long 
as  the  investigation  of  the  problem  is  confined  arbitrar- 
ily to  a  single  factor:  the  mere  incident  that  a  crime 
has  been  committed  and  the  rules  of  social  order  vio- 
lated. Investigation  is  brought  immediately  to  a  halt, 
and  there  remains  only  the  question  of  the  punishment 
to  be  inflicted.  And  this  is  how  the  matter  stands 
even  today,  save  for  certain  modifications  that  the  new 
school  of  criminology  has  been  sufficiently  powerful 
to  force  into  acceptance.  Up  to  quite  a  recent  date 
the  sole  question  asked  by  those  who  administered  the 
law  has  been,  "  How  much  shall  we  punish  ?"  and  that 
is  still  the  main  question.  The  other  query,  "  Why 
should  we  punish?"  belongs  to  a  future  that  is  yet 
unborn,  and  will  be  considered  in  full  when  we  review 
the  philosophy  and  methods  of  the  new  school. 

Punishment  itself  unquestionably  has  passed  through 
three  stages,  the  first  of  which  was  revenge ;  the  "  eye 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT  19 

for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth  "  of  the  Mosaic  and 
a  prior  dispensation.  This  is  the  primitive  idea ; 
Othello  howling  "  Blood,  lago  !  Blood !  "  The  family, 
the  survivors  of  the  clan,  obtain  no  compensation 
through  the  death  of  the  offender,  but  their  lust  for 
vengeance  is  appeased  and  their  honor  retrieved. 
This  primitive  type  is  not  yet  extinct.  It  flourishes 
under  the  form  of  capital  punishment,  whether  ad- 
ministered with  due  legal  formalities  by  the  state,  or 
informally  by  the  mob.  One  still  catches  its  echo  in 
such  expressions  as  "  Justice  must  be  avenged  ". 

The  second  stage  is  deterrence,  terrorism,  the  at- 
tempt to  stamp  out  criminality  by  fear.  Judges  who 
resort  to  exceptionally  severe  sentences  in  the  hope  of 
sXemming  waves  of  crime  show  themselves  still  under 
the  influence  of  this  philosophy. 

The  third  and  last  stage  is  that  of  reformation, 
marking  a  public  conscience  that,  having  become  more 
civilized,  has  grown  uneasy.  Influenced  by  the  re- 
minder from  the  modern  and  scientific  school  that  not 
only  the  commission  of  the  crime  but  also  the  condi- 
tions that  made  the  criminal  must  be  considered,  so- 
ciety asserts  that  while  inflicting  punishment  it  wishes 
by  so  doing  to  reform  the  offender. 

The  first  stage,  that  of  revenge,  as  illustrated  by 
capital  punishment,  will  be  the  subject  of  this  chapter. 
Necessarily  we  shall  draw  on  the  history  of  the  past, 
but  not  at  any  length,  since  the  facts  are  generally  ad- 
mitted and  we  have  no  taste  for  piling  up  horrors  for 
the  sake  of  horror. 

Going  back  barely  a  hundred  years  we  find  execu- 
tion one  of  the  commonest  forms  of  punishment.  The 
lower  the  civilization  the  less  the  value. placed  on  in- 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


dividual  life.  The  best  method  of  dealing  with  an 
offender  is  to  kill  him ;  it  is  the  quickest  and  cheapest 
way  out  of  the  difficulty. 

England  stood  in  the  front  rank  of  civilization,  and, 
since  the  outlines  of  English  history  are  very  generally 
known,  we  go  to  her  for  illustrations.  Whatever  bar- 
barities her  authorities  committed  were  more  than 
matched  in  Europe,  many  of  whose  countries  still 
tolerate,  as  do  certain  sections  of  the  United  States, 
the  application  of  torture  which  England  long  ago 
abandoned. 

When,  under  Henry  VIII  of  Great  Britain,  the 
monasteries,  which  had  been  largely  almshouses  for 
the  needy,  were  abolished;  when  the  towns'  guilds, 
which  also  had  been  to  a  great  extent  charitable  iur 
stitutions,  were  broken  up,  and  when  lands  that  had 
been  used  as  "  commons  "  from  time  immemorial  were 
distributed  in  huge  quantities  among  the  King's  fav- 
orites, the  peace  of  the  country  found  itself  violently 
disturbed  by  the  beggars  who  necessarily  swarmed 
upon  the  highways.  It  was  with  desperate  energy 
that  his  successor,  Elizabeth,  essayed  to  suppress  the 
evil  by  the  notorious  Vagabondage  acts,  under  which 
frightful  penalties  in  the  shape  of  hangings,  brand- 
ings, floggings  and  other  forms  of  torture  were  in- 
flicted on  the  unfortunate  who  found  him  or  herself 
under  the  necessity  of  living.  Modern  historians, 
with  the  wisdom  that  comes  so  readily  after  the  event, 
point  out  that  these  attempts  were,  by  the  very  law  of 
life,  predestined  to  the  failure  which  they  actually  met, 
but  the  impulse  once  generated  continued  almost  una- 
bated until  about  a  century  ago,  at  which  date  the  Eng- 
lish code  contained  223  offenses  punishable  with  death. 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT  21 

Executions  had  become,  as  bull-fighting  is  today  in 
Spain  and  Mexico,  a  national  amusement,  and  it  was 
noted  that  pickpockets  found  their  richest  harvest  in 
the  crowds  gathered  to  see  members  of  their  own 
craft  put  to  death. 

John  Howard's  voice  was  the  first  to  make  itself 
heard,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  in 
protest  against  the  general  indifference  to  this  reign  of 
blood,  and  the  movement  he  started  continued  under 
the  leadership  of  such  men  as  Romilly,  Brougham  and 
Wilberforce  until  a  clean  sweep  was  made  of  the  whole 
brutal  business  that,  by  its  failure  to  check  crime  and 
by  its  demoralization  of  the  public,  had  proved  worse 
than  useless. 

How  great  that  demoralization  must  have  been  may 
be  shown  perhaps  with  some  propriety  here  by  a  tran- 
script of  the  sentence  passed  on  Algernon  Sidney,  who 
was  convicted  in  1683  of  the  crime  of  high  trea- 
son. The  form  of  the  sentence  was  the  one  in  uni- 
versal use  and  runs  as  follows :  "  That  you  be  car- 
ried hence  to  the  place  from  whence  you  came,  and 
from  thence  you  shall  be  drawn  upon  an  hurdle  to 
the  place  of  execution,  where  you  shall  be  hanged  by 
the  neck,  and  being  alive,  cut  down ;  your  privy  mem- 
bers shall  be  cut  off  and  burned  before  your  face,  your 
head  severed  from  your  body  and  your  body  divided 
into  four  quarters,  and  they  to  be  disposed  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  King.  And  the  God  of  infinite  mercy 
have  mercy  upon  your  soul."  An  attribute  was  gen- 
erously ascribed  to  the  deity  which  certainly  neither 
the  English  authorities  nor  those  who  gloated  over 
their  sentences  possessed. 

We  are  now  considering  the  primitive  stage  of  pun- 
ishment —  revenge,  as  illustrated  by  the  imposition  of 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


the  death  penalty  —  and  in  chapter  XI,  when  summing 
up  the  effects  of  the  philosophy  of  deterrence,  or  the 
appeal  to  fear,  we  shall  have  much  to  say  as  to  the  in- 
fluence that  the  state  exerts  on  the  public  when  it  re- 
sorts to  taking  life.  We  shall  then  show  that  it  is  an 
immutable  law  of  life  that  like  begets  like  and  that  vio- 
lence on  the  part  of  the  authorities  generates  violence 
among  the  masses,  as  proved  irrefutably  by  statistics 
covering  various  sections  of  the  United  States.  It 
seems,  however,  convenient  at  this  point  to  enlarge  on 
the  demoralization  that  follows  in  the  wake  of  capital 
punishment,  since  all  thinking  persons  will  agree  that 
whatever  tends  to  excite  passion  and  cruelty  tends  to 
lower  the  general  level  of  morality  and  makes  for 
crime.  Sowing  the  wind  we  reap  the  whirlwind. 
Here  then  is  an  account  by  an  American  writer  of  an 
execution  fiesta  in  Pennsylvania  last  century,  which 
met,  however,  with  unexpected  interruption : 

"  All  eyes  in  the  living  mass  that  surrounded  the 
gibbet  were  fixed  on  the  victim's  countenance,  and 
they  waited  with  strong  desire  the  expected  signal  for 
launching  him  into  eternity.  When  it  was  at  last  an- 
nounced that  a  reprieve  had  left  them  no  hope  of  wit- 
nessing his  agonies  their  fury  knew  no  bounds,  and 
the  poor  maniac  —  for  it  was  discovered  that  he  was 
insane  —  was  with  difficulty  snatched  by  the  officers 
oi  justice  from  the  fate  which  the  most  violent  among 
them  seemed  determined  to  inflict." 

So  admittedly  injurious  to  good  morals  were  such 
spectacles  that  publicity  was  finally  abandoned  and 
for  many  years  past  all  legal  executions,  both  in  this 
country,  and  in  England,  have  taken  place  within  the 
prison  walls,  officials  and  reporters  being  usually  the 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT 23 

only  persons  allowed  to  be  present.  This  change  was 
in  itself  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  possibly  de- 
terrent effect  of  inflicting  the  death  penalty  before  the 
eyes  of  the  populace  was  more  than  outweighed  by  the 
brutality  engendered.  But  surely,  if  the  effect  on  the 
public  is  bad  that  upon  the  prison  officials  themselves 
cannot  be  wholesome,  and  this  consideration  is  one  of 
great  importance,  since  this  is  the  very  class  that  has 
the  lives  and  reformation  of  countless  prisoners  abso- 
lutely at  its  mercy.  A  well-known  Pacific  coast  writer, 
Mr.  James  T.  Griffes,  has  left  an  account  of  how  he 
reported,  in  1892,  for  the  San  Francisco  Call,  an  exe- 
cution in  San  Quentin,  and  he  tells  us  that  during  the 
strain  of  the  lengthy  preparations,  apparently  pro- 
longed with  the  greatest  deliberation,  he  all  but 
fainted.  Bethinking  himself,  however,  of  the  injury 
to  his  reputation  as  a  reporter  that  would  follow,  he 
pulled  himself  together,  "  marched  with  the  rest  of 
them,  drank  in  every  detail  of  the  black  thing,  and, 
as  the  drop  fell,  gloated  with  the  others  and  would 
gladly  have  seen  it  all  over  again."  His  account  of 
the  banquet  in  the  warden's  room  that  followed,  with 
the  criticisms  passed  on  the  dead  man's  behavior  and 
reminiscences  of  other  executions  participated  in  by 
those  present,  would  make  too  unpleasant  reading. 

Psychology  is  now  a  recognized  science,  and  it  is 
generally  acknowledged  that  suggestion  is  a  force  to 
which  we  have  been  singularly  blind.  Is  it  conceiv- 
able that  the  suggestions  raised  by  the  cold-blooded 
murder  effected  by  the  state  are  healthful?  Upon 
this  point  we  quote  Col.  Griffith  J.  Griffith,  who  had 
his.  own  experiences  in  San  Quentin.  He  says: 
"  While  Iwas  in  San  Quentin  half  a  dozen  executions 


24 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

took  place.  With  some  forty  others  I  was  locked  in 
the  laundry,  all  convicts  being  on  such  occasions  shut 
up  in  their  cells  or  in  the  various  workshops.  The 
thud  of  the  falling  body  was  in  each  case  distinctly 
audible,  jarring  the  entire  building.  There  is  a  silence 
that  is  far  more  eloquent  than  any  speech,  and  in  the 
long  hush  that  preceded  the  actual  deed  the  thought 
that  was  busy  in  the  minds  of  my  fellow-prisoners 
was  to  be  read  easily  on  their  faces.  I  can  bear  more 
direct  testimony  to  the  universal  comment  that  suc- 
ceeded, whenever  opportunity  for  discussion  came.  It 
ran  invariably  on  the  strain  that  the  state  had  com- 
mitted another  murder,  with  the  corollary  — '  If  the 
state  may  kill,  why  not  we?  '  That  such  sentiments  — 
engendered,  you  must  remember,  under  circumstances 
in  which  they  necessarily  leave  the  profoundest  and 
most  lasting  mark  —  can  be  other  than  poisonous  to 
our  public  thought  is,  to  me  at  least,  incredible." 
That  Col.  Griffith's  judgment  is  sustained  by  the  actual 
facts  the  figures  on  crimes  of  violence  given  in  a  suc- 
ceeding chapter  will  demonstrate. 

Throughout  this  chapter  we  are  treating  capital 
punishment  as  the  modern  example  "  par  excellence  " 
of  punishment  of  the  most  primitive  type;  that  dic- 
tated by  the  philosophy  of  revenge,  the  desire  to  get 
even.  For  it  goes  without  saying  that  we  cannot  pre- 
tend to  any  anxiety  to  reform  a  man  when  we  pro- 
ceed to  hang  him,*  and  the  argument  for  deterrence 
was  reduced  to  a  mere  shadow  when  the  feature  of 

♦Recently  a  lawyer,  sentenced  to  be  hanged  in  the  Oregon 
State  penitentiary,  made  this  argument  the  basis  of  his  appeal, 
claiming  that  the  purpose  of  the  penitentiary  was  declared  by 
law  as  being  for  reform  and  not  for  punishment,  and  that 
hanging  was  not  a  measure  of  reform.  The  Supreme  Court 
over-ruled   the   plea. 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT 25 

publicity  was  abolished.  But  in  dealing  with  a  sys- 
tem international  in  its  operations,  and,  therefore,  af- 
fecting men  by  the  millions,  it  is  necessary  to  take  the 
largest  views  and  to  consider  the  effect  not  alone  on 
individual  thought  and  character,  but  also  on  the 
thinking  habits  of  the  race.  Dr.  Lydston  condemns 
capital  punishment  as  being  the  parent  of  lynching 
and  points  out  that  the  original  conception  of  social 
revenge  is  kept  constantly  alive  by  what  he  calls  this 
"  legal  barbarity  ",  adding  that  "  it  is  one  of  the  chief 
factors  that  keep  the  tiger  in  humanity's  breast  from 
being  effectually  lulled  to  sleep  by  social  progress." 
And  it  is  here  that  the  student  of  history  will  find  the 
most  overwhelming  condemnation  of  capital  punish- 
ment, inasmuch  as  the  state  by  resorting  to  the  ex- 
tremest  form  of  violence  teaches  her  uneducated  and 
thoughtless  millions  that  the  solution  of  social  ques- 
tions is  to  be  found  not  in  the  use  of  intelligence,  but 
in  falling  back  on  force.  .  Who  can  doubt  that  the 
Reign  of  Terror,  which  marred  and  largely  nullified 
the  good  the  French  revolution  had  accomplished, 
sprang  directly  from  the  lessons  taught  the  masses  by 
an  autocracy  that  ruled  solely  by  the  sword?  Who 
can  doubt  that  the  blood  with  which  the  soil  of  Russia 
has  been  wet  these  many  years  has  the  same  origin, 
and  who  does  not  know  that  immense  changes  are  in- 
evitable in  this  country,  and  that  the  one  serious  dan- 
ger is  that  they  will  be  accompanied  by  bloodshed? 
In  short,  no  more  pernicious  teaching  is  conceivable 
than  that  which  bids  the  masses  look  not  to  the  use  of 
their  intelligence  but  to  the  exercise  of  force  for  the 
solution  of  their  troubles,  for  so  long  as  they  place 
their  reliance  on  the  baser  weapon  of  brutality  there 


2&  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

will  be  no  search  for  that  actual  knowledge  which 
alone  can  set  men  free.  And  when  we  condemn  the 
wild  utterances  of  the  individual  apostle  of  violence 
we  should  remember  that  they  are  but  dust  in  the  bal- 
ance as  compared  with  the  all-pervasive  example  set 
to  the  people  by  their  state. 

The  abolition  of  capital  punishment  is  urged,  there- 
fore, for  reasons  far  weightier  than  concern  for  the 
fate  of  the  individual  victim,  since,  when  we  consider 
the  conditions  that  prevail  in  many  of  our  prisons,  it 
may  well  be  doubted  whether  death  is  not  often  the 
preferable  lot.  It  is  urged  because  civilization  de- 
pends on  a  high  appreciation  of  the  value  of  individ- 
ual life,  and  because  the  death  penalty  must  be  done 
away  with  if  the  public  is  to  be  educated  into  relying 
on  intelligence  instead  of  physical  force.  The  more 
this  argument  is  pondered  the  more  clearly  will  its 
strength  be  seen. 

When  we  pass  to  a  consideration  of  deterrence  — 
the  gospel  of  fear  —  we  shall  show  that  capital  pun- 
ishment can  put  up  from  that  standpoint  only  the 
lamest  of  defenses,  since  it  conspicuously  fails  to  at- 
tain its  aim ;  but  a  word  may  be  said  here  in  refutation 
of  the  biblical  argument  to  which  many  of  the  clergy 
and  their  followers  apparently  are  still  attached.  In 
their  fidelity  to  the  Mosaic  law  they  lose  sight  of  the 
fact  that  Christ  himself  set  it  aside  in  the  most  specific 
manner  conceivable,  as,  for  instance,  when  he  rescued 
from  the  hands  of  her  would-be  executioners  the 
woman  taken  in  adultery.  Moreover,  if  modern  so- 
ciety is  to  be  governed  by  the  Mosaic  code,  the  death 
penalty  must  be  inflicted  for  many  crimes  besides 
murder. 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT  27 

A  special  report  was  made  to  congress  in  1896  on 
capital  punishment,  and  the  committee  gave  a  list  of 
418  works  it  had  consulted  on  the  subject.  It  stated 
that  391  of  these  favored  the  abolition  of  the  death 
penalty  as  against  only  twenty-seven  that  stood  for  its 
retention.  It  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that  twelve  of 
these  twenty-seven  had  been  written  by  ministers  of 
the  gospel  or  had  appeared  in  clerical  magazines. 
And  although  one  could  without  difficulty  produce 
clippings  from  many  papers  that,  under  the  pressure 
of  some  local  excitement,  have  called  for  blood,  it  is 
not  a  little  disheartening  to  find  such  an  organ  as  the 
Presbyterian  Standard  (Charlotte,  N.  C.,)  rejoicing 
at  the  restoration  of  the  guillotine  in  France,  and  de- 
claring that  "  apart  from  the  gospel  nothing  would 
work  more  for  the  salvation  of  the  country  than  a 
goodly  number  of  well-conducted,  well-considered  and 
well-timed  hangings." 

This  attitude  of  a  certain  portion  of  the  clergy  is 
brought  into  more  conspicuous  notice  by  a  recent  let- 
ter from  Tolstoy,  in  which  he  severely  criticises  A. 
Stolypine,  brother  of  the  Russian  prime  minister,  for 
defending  capital  punishment  on  the  ground  that  it  is 
sanctioned  by  the  New  Testament.  The  great  Rus- 
sian writer  says :  "  Stolypine's  article  is  in  itself  ab- 
surd and  insignificant.  Nevertheless  it  represents  a 
very  definite  mockery  of  all  which  was,  is  and  will  be 
sacred  to  those  who  understand  the  true  significance 
of  Christ's  teachings.  This  article,  published  in  a 
paper  which  has  hundreds  of  thousands  of  readers, 
says  that  Christ  not  only  did  not  forbid  murder,  not 
only  recognized  the  need  for  capital  punishment,  but 
even   upbraided   the   people    for   abolishing   it.     This, 


28  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

mind  you,  is  said  of  Christ,  who  is  the  manifestation 
of  God's  love,  of  that  God  who  is  love  himself." 

Russia  formally  abolished  capital  punishment  as 
long  ago  as  1753,  save  in  connection  with  political 
crimes,  but  this  latter  has  proved  the  most  elastic  of 
terms,  the  enormous  number  of  executions  that  has 
taken  place  there  within  recent  years  being  one  of  the 
scandals  of  the  age. 

•  According  to  the  congressional  report  referred  to 
above,  Holland,  Portugal  and  Italy  are  well  satisfied 
that  they  abolished  the  death  penalty,,  and  it  is  stated 
that  in  Norway,  since  1874,  there  has  been  a  growing 
disposition  to  substitute  imprisonment  as  the  punish- 
ment for  murder.  Fifteen  Swiss  cantons  are  reported 
as  having  abolished  capital  punishment,  while  seven 
retain  it. 

France,  on  the  other  hand,  as  noted  in  a  previous 
paragraph,  recently  set  up  the  guillotine  once  more 
and  reports  say  that  crowds  flocked  eagerly  to  witness 
it  in  operation.  That  there  will  be  a  corresponding 
demoralization  is  inevitable,  but  the  most  civilized 
countries  have  their  reactionary  spells. 

In  the  United  States,  Michigan,  Rhode  Island,  Wis- 
consin, Kansas  and  Maine  have  got  along  without 
capital  punishment,  the  four  first  named  for  more  than 
two  generations,  and  the  last  since  1887,  at  which  date 
it  finally  decided  against  the  death  penalty,  after 
having  reverted  to  it  for  a  term  of  four  years.  When 
treating  deterrence  we  shall  show  that  in  these  states 
crimes  of  violence  are  comparatively  few,  and  that 
they  have  been  singularly  free  from  lynchings.  The 
contrast  presented  by  the  figures  from  the  southern 
states,  in  whose  convict  camps  the  murder  of  prisoners 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT  29 

by  guards  has  been  a  far  too  frequent  feature,  cannot 
fail  to  impress  the  thoughtful  reader. 

In  the  District  of  Columbia  a  bill  for  the  abolition 
of  the  death  penalty  was  introduced  by  Representative 
Scott  of  Kansas,  March  28,  1908,  and  it  now  seems 
probable  that  Illinois  will  do  away  with  executions  at 
an  early  date,  a  bill  to  that  effect  having  passed  the 
lower  branch  of  the  general  assembly  in  June,  1909, 
by  a  vote  of  81  to  42.  The  measure  was  defeated  in 
the  senate,  but  those  who  have  been  working  for  the 
change  express  themselves  as  confident  of  success 
within  the  next  two  years.  Throughout  the  debate 
much  emphasis  was  laid  on  the  celebrated  and  recent 
Billik  case,  in  which  the  prisoner  was  saved  at  the  last 
moment  by  the  confession  of  the  main  witness  for  the 
prosecution,  who  acknowledged  that  he  had  perjured 
himself.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  similar  mistakes 
have  been  discovered  repeatedly  only  when  it  was  too 
late  to  rectify  them,  but  this  is  such  a  common  count 
in  the  indictment  against  capital  punishment  that  we 
think  it  useless  to  elaborate  the  point.  It  was  the  dis- 
covery that  an  innocent  man  had  been  hanged  which 
caused  Rhode  Island  to  take  action  in  1852,  and  Maine 
finally  did  away  with  the  death  penalty  when  it  was 
proved  that  Stain  and  Cromwell  were  guiltless  of  the 
crime  for  which  they  had  been  sentenced  to  the  gal- 
lows. 

In  Iowa  a  convicted  murderer  is  sent  to  the  gallows 
only  when  the  jury  so  recommends,  and  for  more  than 
twelve  years  no  execution  has  taken  place.  In  New 
Hampshire  no  one  has  been  executed  since  1893.  In 
Massachusetts  the  feeling  against  capital  punishment 
is  reported  as  strong,  and  a  vigorous  fight  for  its 
abolition  is  being  waged. 


3a  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

In  ten  of  our  states  the  jury  has  the  right  to  fix  the 
penahy  for  murder  at  imprisonment  instead  of  death, 
and  Pennsylvania  proposed  last  spring  to  adopt  this 
plan,  a  bill  to  that  effect  passing  both  branches  of  the 
legislature.  The  governor,  however,  thought  fit  to 
veto  the  measure,  avovi^ing  it  as  his  individual  opinion 
that  the  gallows  was  a  necessary  deterrent.  On  the 
other  hand  one  of  the  stock  arguments  against  capital 
punishment  always  has  been  that  it  leads  to  the  release 
of  many  who  are  actually  guilty,  juries  being  properly 
loth  to  sign  away  a  human  life  where  there  is  the  re- 
motest possibility  of  doubt.  This  was  notoriously  one 
of  the  chief  reasons  that  induced  England  to  modify 
her  code,  hard-headed  business  men,  such  as  the  Lon- 
don bankers,  petitioning  parliament  to  do  away  with 
the  death  penalty  since  it  was  impossible  to  induce 
juries  to  convict.  On  this  head,  however,  more  re- 
cent experiences  in  the  United  States  seem  conclu- 
sive, as  will  be  seen  from  the  figures  in  the  following 
paragraphs. 

In  New  York  state  the  annual  average  of  homicides 
is  given  as  1500;  from  1889  to  1905  the  annual  execu- 
tions averaged  5.5.  In  Illinois  from  1890  to  1899 
homicides  averaged  315  a  year;  executions  3.  In  Chi- 
cago during  the  twenty-nine  years  ending  December  i, 
1906,  there  were  21 13  known  cases  of  killing,  and  38 
executions.  In  Connecticut  the  decade  of  1897  to 
1906  showed  an  annual  average  of  80  homicides  and 
one  execution.  The  figures  in  Massachusetts  from 
1901  to  1907  show  104  charged  with  murder  and  only 
six  convictions.  In  Ohio  during  eight  years  homi- 
cides averaged  300  a  year  and  executions  only  2.3.  In 
Idaho  recent  investigation  of  a  period  of  three  years 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT  31 

shows  that  not  one  of  the  twenty-one  indicted  for 
murder  during  that  time  was  convicted.  Kansas  had 
gone  almost  twenty-five  years  without  an  execution. 
In  short,  if  the  records  of  these  great  states  prove 
anything  it  is  that,  under  ordinary  circumstances, 
juries  will  not  convict  when  they  know  death  will  be 
the  result. 

Take  on  the  other  hand  the  experiences  of  those 
states  that  have  done  away  with  capital  punishment. 
Wisconsin  shows  a  conviction  percentage  of  40.5,  and 
in  Maine  the  percentage  of  convictions  rose  from  15.4 
to  64.5  after  the  abolition  of  the  death  penalty.  Rhode 
Island's  percentage  of  convictions  is  65,  and  that  of 
Michigan  28.2,  Comparison  of  these  figures  with 
those  given  in  the  preceding  paragraph  renders  com- 
ment superfluous.  For  additional  particulars  the  stu- 
dent is  referred  to  "  The  Penalty  of  Death  ",  by  An- 
drew Palm,  Maynard  Shipley's  exhaustive  article, 
entitled,  "  Does  Capital  Punishment  Prevent  Convic- 
tions?" in  the  American  Lazv  Review  for  May-June, 
1909,  and  the  American  Reviezv  of  Reviews  for  Au- 
gust, 1909.  It  will  be  found  that  the  states  that  have 
abolished  capital  punishment  have  been  influenced  in 
favor  of  the  change  mainly  by  the  great  difficulty  of 
securing  convictions  in  murder  trials,  and  it  may  be  of 
interest  to  note  that  in  an  address  on  the  administra- 
tion of  criminal  law,  delivered  in  June,  1905,  before 
the  Yale  Law  School,  President  Taft  himself  called  at- 
tention to  the  small  proportion  of  murderers  punished. 

Moreover,  it  is  universally  admitted  that  the  enor- 
mous length  of  modern  murder  trials,  the  obstructive 
tactics  and  incessant  delays  for  which  they  are  no- 
torious, and  the  vast  expense  to  which  they  put  the 


32  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

public,  are  due  to  our  retention  of  capital  punishment. 
To  which  may  be  added  the  fact  that  men  of  a  sym- 
pathetic and  intelligent  type  habitually  shrink  from 
serving  as  jurymen  in  cases  where  they  may  be  called 
on  to  vote  away  a  man's  life.  Thus  jury  duty  falls 
more  and  more  into  the  hands  of  an  inferior  class,  and 
the  entire  administration  of  justice  suffers. 

It  may  be  added  that  the  case  of  Colorado  is  peculiar 
since  she  abolished  capital  punishment  in  1897,  and 
partially  restored  it  in  1901.  In  a  report  made  in  1900 
to  the  United  States  prison  commissioner  by  C.  L. 
Stonaker,  secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities 
and  Corrections,  he  said :  "  Capital  punishment  has 
been  abolished  in  the  state  without  any  apparent  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  murders  committed,  but  with  a 
better  showing  for  speedy  trials  and  convictions."  In 
the  ten-year  period  from  1889  to  1897  there  have  been 
about  2500  homicides  in  the  state  and  only  12  execu- 
tions. 

If  no  other  evidence  on  this  head  were  obtainable 
the  figures  compiled  by  the  Chicago  Tribune  for  the 
period  of  twenty-three  years  from  1881  to  1903  would 
appear  in  themselves  to  be  conclusive.  The  murders 
and  homicides  during  that  period  numbered  129,464, 
an  average,  excluding  fractions,  of  5628  a  year.  The 
executions,  on  the  other  hand,  numbered  only  261 1, 
an  average  of  113  a  year.  It  is  to  be  considered, 
moreover,  that  while  the  compiler  would  get  news  of 
every  execution,  as  being  a  matter  of  notoriety  and 
public  record,  many  of  the  murders  and  homicide 
committed  in  remote  parts  of  the  country  necessari!} 
would  escape  his  attention. 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT  33 

While  the  north  and  certain  of  the  western  states 
have  been  taking  lessons  from  experience,  the  south 
still  clings  religiously  to  old  ideas.  Thus  the  congres- 
sional report  of  1896,  previously  cited,  shows  that 
Georgia  had  at  that  time  ten  crimes  punishable  with 
death,  while  Louisiana  and  Maryland  each  had  seven. 
In  Alabama  also  the  jury  could  impose  the  death  pen- 
alty for  any  one  of  seven  different  crimes.  In  a  spe- 
cial appendix  to  the  report  Gen.  N.  M.  Curtis,  the  New 
York  representative,  took  occasion  to  say :  "  A  com- 
parison of  the  criminal  laws  of  foreign  countries  with 
those  of  the  United  States  shows  that  we  undoubtedly 
have  the  bloodiest  code  in  the  world,  and  it  is  confi- 
dently stated  that  we  have  also  the  greatest  number  of 
homicidal  crimes  in  proportion  to  population."  The 
bloodiest  code ;  the  greatest  proportion  of  homicides ! 

We  have  reserved  to  the  last  the  economic  argument 
advanced  by  those  who  favor  the  retention  of  capital 
punishment,  viz. :  That  the  community  should  not  be 
asked  to  support  for  the  remainder  of  their  natural 
lives  those  guilty  of  heinous  crime,  many  of  whom  are 
impervious  to  reforming  influences.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  it  is  a  commonplace  among  those  familiar  with 
prison  life  that  "  Murderers'  Row "  often  contains 
the  most  decent  men  in  the  establishment,  and  it  is 
obvious  that  a  man  who,  with  an  otherwise  blameless 
record,  has  taken  life  in  a  gust  of  sudden  passion  of- 
fers far  more  promising  material  than  the  habitual  de- 
generate whose  career  has  been  one  continuous  series 
of  petty  crimes.  But  apart  from  this  patent  consider- 
ation the  argument  begs  the  question,  for  there  is  no 
intrinsic  reason  why  such  prisoners  should  not  be  kept 
at  labor  that  will  more  than  defray  the  scanty  cost  of 


34  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

their  maintenance.  In  a  future  chapter  we  shall  lay 
it  down  as  a  general  principle  that  all  prisoners  should 
be  self-supporting,  and  that  enforced  idleness  or  un- 
remunerative  toil  imposes  an  injustice  alike  on  the 
convict  and  on  society. 

We  have  no  intention  of  intruding  our  political 
prejudices  on  our  readers,  but  a  passage  from  "  Life 
in  Sing  Sing",  by  No.  1500,  founder  and  for  many 
years  editor  of  the  well-known  prison  paper,  the 
Star  of  Hope,  puts  in  a  nut-shell  one  of  the  main 
reasons  why  capital  punishment  is  still  retained  on  our 
statute  books.  The  author  is  speaking  of  Mrs.  Place, 
who  was  electrocuted  in  Sing  Sing  and  continued  to 
the  end,  as  he  declares,  "  brave  and  steady  even  to  a 
degree  that  few  men  have  been  able  to  achieve."  He 
says :  "  I  saw  her  nearly  every  day,  sitting  at  her 
grated  door,  leading  the  conversation  on  all  sorts  of 
subjects.  She  was  more  vivacious  by  far  than  the 
matrons  of  forbidding  aspect  and  reserved  manner 
who  sat  watching  her  outside  of  her  bars.  There  was 
little  of  the  graceful  quality  of  femininity  in  the  ap- 
pearance of  Mrs.  Place,  but  she  had  all  the  womanly 
alertness  and  interest  over  small  matters  and  the  flat- 
tering attention  to  others'  trifling  complaints.  The 
quick  sympathies  that  sprang  to  her  lips  without  effort 
enlisted  the  liking  of  those  with  whom  she  came  in 
contact.  The  influence  thus  exerted  soon  extended 
to  her  keepers,  who,  as  the  day  of  her  execution  drew 
near,  frequently  broke  forth  weeping  and  mourning 
her  fate.  At  such  times  this  superior  murderess 
would  comfort  them  with  her  cheerfulness  of  manner, 
although  from  almost  the  first  reports  of  the  attitude 
of  Governor  Roosevelt  on  her  application  for  a  stay 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT  35 

or  a  commutation  in  the  terms  of  her  sentence,  she 
continued  tb  say :  '  That  soldier-man  likes  killing 
things  and  he  is  going  to  kill  me  '." 

Perhaps  she  did  our  former  president  an  injustice, 
but  she  voiced  truly  the  motive  that  influences  many 
of  those  who  still  uphold  capital  punishment.  They 
like  to  kill.  It  is  the  barbaric  instinct  for  revenge 
that  has  not  yet  worked  out  of  the  blood. 

"And  as  one  sees  most  fearful  things 

In  the   crystal  of  a   dream, 
We  saw  the  greasy  hempen  rope 

Hooked  to  the  blackened  beam, 
And  heard  the  prayer  the  hangman's  snare 

Strangled    into    a    scream." 

{Ballad  of  Reading  Gaol.) 


CHAPTER   III.       • 

DETERRENCE— WORKED  TO  THE  LIMIT 

The  race  life  advances  not  by  fits  and  starts  but  by 
gradual  unfolding.  We  do  not  jump,  but  grow,  each 
new  development  being  the  effect  of  some  preceding 
evolution  which  was  its  cause.  Gradually  the  narrow, 
savage  ideal  of  punishment  solely  for  revenge  takes  a 
larger  and  more  generous  form.  \No  longer  is  the 
injured  individual,  his  family  or  his  clan  the  only  one 
considered.  The  public  puts  in  a  claim  and  the  in- 
fluence crime  exercises  on  others  is  introduced  as  a 
factor.  Legislatures  and  executives  talk  more  and 
more  of  preserving  the  public  safety,  and  the  atrocity 
of  killings  and  torturings  is  defended  in  the  name  of 
the  public  weal.  This  is  the  stage  that,  as  a  nation, 
we  have  actually  reached.  Although  in  reality  we  are 
moved  by  the  savage  instinct  when  we  gloat  over 
the  accounts  of  executions  furnished  by  an  obliging 
press,  participate  in  lynchings  and  give  surprising  ex- 
hibitions of  speed  when  we  join  in  a  man  hunt,  we 
assiduously  conceal  our  true  motives,  asserting  loudly 
that  we  are  racked  by  anxiety  for  law  and  order.  It 
is  a  pleasing  hypocrisy ;  the  homage  that  savagery 
pays  to  the  kindlier  philosophy  of  barbarism. 

Under  the  head  of  capital  punishment  we  have 
touched  on  the  historical  failure  of  deterrence,  citing 
the  classical  illustrations  afforded  by  English  history. 
We  have  shown,  for  example,  that  her  cruel  Vagabond- 
age acts  proved  utterly  ineffective,  and  that  within  a 
century  she  wiped  froin  her  statute  books  222  capital 


DETERRENCE  — WORKED  TO  THE  LIMIT       37 

offenses.  From  sentiment  ?  Surely  not,  for  the  Eng- 
lish have  been  the  most  practical  of  nations,  having 
succeeded  in  acquiring  and  lording  it  over  the  choicest 
portions  of  this  earth's  surface.  England  threw  her 
whole  machinery  of  hangings,  torturings  and  corporal 
punishment  on  the  scrap-iron  heap  simply  because  she 
had  a  genius  for  being  practical ;  she  could  face  a 
fact  when  it  had  been  proved  as  such.  She  found  that 
the  allegedly  deterrent  penalties  did  not  deter.  Even 
her  bankers  discovered  that  forgery  flourished  rankly 
within  the  very  shadow  of  the  gallows,  and  petitioned 
parliament  for  more  lenient  and  certain  punishment. 

Robert  G.  Ingersoll  has  said  somewhere  that  when 
he  saw  the  thumbscrews  and  other  instruments  of 
torture,  by  which  in  ruder  times  the  orthodox  sought 
to  win  back  those  who  had  developed  a  different 
opinion,  he  felt  that,  had  he  been  one  of  the  victims, 
he  would  have  cried :  "  I  promise  anything,  but  for 
God's  sake  take  ofif  those  thurribscrews."  It  is  an  excel- 
lent illustration  of  the  weakness  of  deterrence.  A  never 
ceasing  flood  of  discharged  convicts  pours  back  into 
our  penitentiaries,  not  because  they  have  found  life 
there  a  paradise,  but  because  the  thumbscrew  of 
present  want  exercises  a  pressure  far  more  potent  than 
does  the  fear  of  future,  but  uncertain,  punishment, 
however  severe.  Here  is  the  true  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion why  deterrence,  pushed  to  the  very  limits  of 
human  endurance,  does  not  deter.  It  is  not  a  theory, 
but  an  actual  situation  that  confronts  us,  and  we 
should  face  it. 

From  time  to  time,  though  not  so  often  as  formerly, 
editors  take  a  flight  into  the  realms  of  fancy  and 
unbosom  themselves  of  the  judgment  that  our  jails, 


38  CRIME  AND.  CRIMINALS 

reformatories  and  penitentiaries  are  charitable  institu- 
tions in  which  the  criminal  enjoys  his  ease  at  public 
cost.  We  ourselves  are  not  concerned  with  fancies  in 
this  matter;  we  deal  with  facts.  Inasmuch  as  the 
facts  at  our  disposition  would  fill  volumes  we  select 
carefully,  advancing  only  those  of  recent  date  and  in- 
disputable authenticity.  Their  bare  recital  will  show 
the  extent  to  which  we  have  put  into  operation  the 
philosophy  of  deterrence. 

Here  is  the  great  state  of  Illinois,  a  commanding 
figure  that  claims  to  stand  in  the  front  rank  of  civiliza- 
tion and  culture.  Its  principal  city,.  Chicago,  is  the 
second  largest  in  the  country;  it  is  policed,  as 
the  public  generally  understands,  in  the  most  modern 
and  up-to-date  fashion.  Crime  and  the  treatment  of 
criminals  have  been  the  special  studies  of  many  of 
its  brightest  minds.  It  prides  itself  on  the  human- 
itarian conquests  achieved  by  such  a  judge  as  McKen- 
zie  Cleland  in  the  Municipal  Court  of  Chicago.  Prison 
reformers  have  been  exceptionally  active,  for  Chicago 
is  the  headquarters  of  the  Howard  Central  Associa- 
tion and  the  National  Probation  League,  while  a 
branch  of  the  Prison  Reform^  League  is  located  there. 
Quite  recently  it  has  been  the  birthplace  of  the  Amer- 
ican Institute  of  Criminal  Law  and  Criminology.  As 
stated  in  the  last  chapter  it  has  taken  a  long  step  to- 
ward the  abolition  of  capital  punishment,  and  last 
year  its  House  of  Representatives  found  it  necessary 
to  institute  an  official  inquiry  into  the  conduct  of  its 
penal  and  charitable  institutions.  From  a  series  of 
unfavorable  reports  rendered  by  the  committee  of 
investigation  we  select  that  on  the  State  Reformatory 
at  Pontiac,  because  a  reformatory  is  essentially  a  place 


DETERRENCE  — WORKED  TO  THE  LIMIT       39 

in  which  the  ostensible  purpose  is  not  to  punish  but 
to  reform. 

A  large  portion  of  the  report  is  devoted  to  a  con- 
sideration of  the  case  of  William  Hamlin,  aged  19, 
who  died  in  the  hospital  as  the  result  of  injuries  in- 
flicted. It  is  stated  thus  by  Representative  Hill,  chair- 
man of  the  committee :  "  That  boy  was  kept  in  the 
'  solitary  '.  He  was  trussed  up  there.  I  wish  I  had  the 
exhibits  here.  They  will  be  here  tomorrow.  He  was 
manacled  up  in  this  manner  (illustrating)  to  the  bars 
for  thirty-eight  consecutive  hours,  with  two  hours 
rest  between ;  manacled  up  in  this  manner  for  that 
length  of  time.  Stop  and  think  one  moment,  if  you 
please,  of  standing  in  that  position  for  that  length  of 
time,  or  for  one  hour.  Finally  he  was  taken  out  of 
there,  as  the  evidence  shows  and  the  doctors  swear, 
with  his  back  broken  in  two  places,  here,  at  the  neck, 
and  at  the  lower  part  of  the  spine,  and,  gentlemen, 
the  exhibits  are  there.  The  pieces  of  spine  are  there 
under  the  care  of  the  doctors  today,  ready  for  you  to 
see  if  you  want  to  see  them ;  and  yet,  I  want  to  tell 
you,  the  hardest  thing  in  the  world  is  to  get  evidence 
in  these  cases.' " 

Incidentally  it  may  be  mentioned  that  Hamlin  was 
given  the  "  water  cure  "  also ;  an  excruciating  torture 
of  which  we  shall  treat  presently.  We  quote  from  the 
committee's  findings : 

"  Too  much  attention  cannot  be  given  to  the  pun- 
ishment to  which  Hamlin  was  subjected.  Hamlin  was 
cuffed  up  on  the  morning  of  the  24th  of  December,  his 
hands  being  hung  as  high  above  his  head  as  he  could 
reach,  in  which  position  he  was  kept  the  entire  day 
of  the  24th,  and  all  night  of  the  24th,  all  day  of  the 


40  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

25th,  until  2  o'clock  of  said  day,  when  he  was  let  down 
for  two  hours.  At  the  expiration  of  two  hours  he 
was  again  cuffed  up,  or  put  in  irons,  as  it  is  sometimes 
termed,  handcuffs  being  put  around  his  wrists  and  the 
chain  to  which  the  handcuffs  were  attached  put  over 
the  crossbar  over  the  door,  about  six  feet  and  one-half 
from  the  floor,  holding  his  hands  at  full  arm  length 
above  his  head,  and  kept  in  that  position  from  that 
time  until  2  o'clock  of  the  next  day,  when  he  was 
again  given  two  hours'  rest.  At  the  end  of  the  two 
hours  he  was  again  cuffed  up  similarly  as  before  and 
kept  in  that  position  until  he  was  injured.  During  the 
time  of  confinement  in  the  solitary  the  prisoner  is  al- 
lowed one  piece  of  bread  a  day,  but  is  allowed  all  the 
water  he  cares  to  drink.  The  solitary  cells  are  rude, 
primitive  structures,  relics  of  medieval  torture ;  each 
cell  is  about  seven  and  one-half  feet  high,  between 
four  and  five  feet  wide,  about  seven  and  a  half  feet 
long;  the  floor,  the  ceiling,  the  side  walls  and  one 
end  wall  are  of  cement.  In  the  cement  end  of  the 
wall  there  is  a  window  about  two  feet  square.  The 
other  end  wall  consists  of  bars,  iron  bars,  in  which 
iron  bars  is  a  door. 

"  From  the  evidence  taken  we  add  the  boy's  dying 
statement  that  they  had  hung  him  up  for  the  best 
part  of  three  days  and  nights  by  the  hands  until  he 
could  endure  it  no  longer,  of  which  fact  he  apprised 
the  guard,  telling  him  that  he  could  not  stand  it  and 
begged  to  be  let  down  for  a  while ;  that  when  he  heard 
the  guard  coming  in  to  chain  him  up  again  he  broke 
and  ran  and  climbed  on  the  bars,  and  hung  as  long  as 
he  could ;  that  his  arms  were  numb  and  he  dropped 
when  he  could  hold  on  to  the  bars  no  longer;  that 


DETERRENCE  —  WORKED  TO  THE  LIMIT       41 

after  he  dropped  the  night  captain  came  in  and  kicked 
and  beat  him  and  shook  him  and  himg  him  up  still 
higher,  at  which  time  he  fainted,  and  what  they  did 
afterwards  he  did  not  know ;  that  when  he  came  to  he 
was  lying  on  the  floor  all  wet,  and  that  they  were 
throwing  water  on  him  out  of  buckets  and  tin  cups , 
that  he  didn't  know  anything  else  until  he  found  him- 
self in  the  hospital." 

This  particular  reformatory  is  supposed  to  be  for 
the  redemption  of  wayward  youths  under  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  and  the  lad  in  question  had  made  a 
splendid  record,  having  to  his  credit  every  possible 
mark.  Suddenly  he  found  himself  in  the  "  solitary  " 
for  having  used  his  tin  cup  as  a  mirror  and  watched  a 
guard  on  the  gallery.  Thereupon  he  endeavored  to 
escape. 

The  view  of  their  duty  taken  by  the  reformatory 
guards  may  be  seen  from  the  following  extract : 
"After  an  intermission  of  two  hours  he  (Hamlin) 
was  again  cuffed  up,  and  for  sixteen  hours  longer  he 
was  shackled  to  the  bars  of  his  cell.  Another  inter- 
mission followed  and  for  a  third  time  he  was  hung 
up.  '  He  wouldn't  give  in,'  said  Capt.  A.  J.  Renoe 
on  the  witness  stand,  '  and  it  is  our  practice  to  break 
a  prisoner  in  the  solitary  —  to  break  his  will.'  The 
testimony  shows  that  the  boy  pleaded  piteously  to  be 
let  down.  His  wrists  and  ankles  were  swollen  and  he 
suffered  excruciating  pain.  But  he  would  not  '  give 
in  ',  and  though  he  fainted  as  he  hung  in  his  chains  his 
cruel  guards  let  him  hang." 

Can  any  one  read  such  evidence  and  believe  that  the 
Illinois  State  Reformatory  at  Pontiac  is  a  palace  of 
ease?     Does  not  every  one  recognize  immediately  that 


42  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

the  effort  is,  true  to  the  policy  of  deterrence,  to  make 
the  institution  as  good  an  example  of  hell  as  human 
ingenuity  will  permit?  And,  above  all,  it  will  be 
noted  that  the  avowed  practice  of  the  guards  is  to 
"break  the  will";  to  degrade  man,  the  most  highly 
evolved  of  all  the  forms  of  life,  into  a  jellyfish. 

Yet  it  is  painfully  evident  that  this  reformatory  is 
much  on  a  par  with  other  penal  and  charitable  institu- 
tions in  Illinois,  as  witness  the  following  from  the  re- 
port of  the  same  committee  on  the  Lincoln  Asylum 
for  the  Feeble  Minded  —  a  class  that  appeals  to  every 
sentiment  of  chivalry,  and  an  institution  named  after 
one  of  the  kindliest  men  that  ever  breathed :  "  The 
failure  to  notify  the  coroner  as  to  violent  deaths  oc- 
curring in  the  institution;  the  reprimanding  of  Dr. 
Hoag  for  diagnosing  that  Vergene  Jessup  had  been 
gnawed  by  rats,  and  the  history  of  the  Frank  Giroux, 
Walter  Kaak,  Minnie  Steritz  and  other  cases,  show  a 
lamentable  lack  of  efficiency  in  management.  It  seems 
evident  from  the  testimony  that  the  food  supply  fur- 
nished the  inmates,  which  will  be  more  fully  treated 
hereafter  in  this  report,  was  seriously  lacking  in 
quality  and  ofttimes  in  quantity.  The  prevalent  use 
of  salt  pork,  the  want  of  vegetables,  the  failure  to 
furnish  these  children  —  most  of  whom  are  very 
anemic  and  many  of  them  tubercular  —  with  vege- 
tables, milk  or  eggs,  reflects  seriously  on  the  present 
management  of  this  instittition." 

Or  this  from  the  report  of  the  same  committee  on 
the  Illinois  Asylum  for  Insane  ■  Criminals  :  "  Some  of 
the  cells  at  this  institution  come  nearer  to  a  modern 
conception  of  the  dungeons  in  medieval  times  than 
anything  the  committee  came  in  contact  with,  unless 


DETERRENCE  — WORKED  TO  THE  LIMIT       43 

it  may  be  the  solitaries  at  the  various  penal  and  refor- 
matory institutions,  and  in  a  matter  of  choice  it  is  the 
opinion  of  the  committee  that  even  these  would  be 
selected  in  preference  to  the  aforesaid  cells.  The  only 
redeeming  feature  of  it  is  that  the  committee  was 
informed  they  have  forced  ventilation.  Strange  to 
say,  these  are  the  latest  cells  constructed." 

Apparently  the  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  deterrence 
is  such  that  it  is  thought  that  by  making  things  suffi- 
ciently unpleasant  men  and  women  may  be  frightened 
into  remaining  sane. 

Let  us  take  another  state,  one  justly  proud  of  much 
of  the  progress  it  has  made  —  Ohio,  the  "  mother  of 
statesmen  ",  from  which  our  ruling  president  comes. 
We  call  Mr.  Charles  Edward  Russell  as  a  witness 
and  we  say  he  is  a  most  credible  one,  for  as  an  in- 
vestigator he  has  an  established  reputation  which  he 
dare  not  lose  by  being  false  to  facts.  In  the  first 
of  a  series  of  articles  entitled  "  Beating  Men  to  Make 
Them  Good  ",  published  in  Hampton's  Magazine,  Sep- 
tember, 1909,  he  thus  describes  conditions  in  the  state 
penitentiary  at  Columbus  :  ''  The  first  buildings  are  cell 
houses.  Here  is  one  built  in  1834.  It  is  a  frightful 
place,  very  dark,  damp  and  to  the  senses  pungently 
suggestive  of  long  and  odorous  occupation.  The  ven- 
tilation is  so  bad  that  even  when  the  tenants  are  gone 
forth  the  air  is  heavy  and  foul ;  what  it  must  be 
when  the  500  cells  are  occupied  with  breathing  and  per- 
spiring men  is  a  suggestion  to  jostle  complacency. 
There  is  first  the  outer  wall  with  barred  windows, 
few  and  narrow ;  then  a  space  of  ten  or  twelve  feet, 
then  the  cells  in  five  tiers.     At  noon  barely  so  much 


44         CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

light  enters  the  corridor  that  one  may  see  one's  way 
about.     No  light  enters  the  cells. 

"  Into  these  black  caves,  where  the  chill  of  old 
stone  walls  strikes  one  like  a  palpable  thing,  and  where 
the  heavy  air  is  stirless  always,  not  one  ray  of  natural 
light  has  penetrated  for  seventy-five  years.  And  500 
men  sleep  in  these  caverns.  What  think  you  of  that, 
my  medical  friend?  Does  not  that  spell  disease  and 
death  ?  The  other  cells  are  somewhat  better  —  not 
much.  None  of  them  is  fit  for  human  beings  to  in- 
habit; amd  here  altogether  are  about  1700  of  such 
inhabitants,  under  the  worst  possible  conditions ;  for 
many  of  the  small  black  caves  house  two  men  each." 

Mr.  Russell  visits  the  filthy  dining  room,  where 
"  more  than  one  convict  makes  an  attempt  on  the  mess 
before  him,  and,  desisting  after  a  moment,  sits  and 
stares  hopelessly  at  his  plate.  If  one  wishes  more 
bread  he  raises  a  dirty  finger  and  a  guard  , takes  a 
piece  in  his  hand  and  tosses  it  upon  the  dirty  table. 
If  one  wishes  more  water  he  raises  his  cup.  Not  a 
soul  breathes  a  word.  The  guards  are  all  there, 
watching,  listening." 

He  then  passes  to  the  chapel,  "  where  every  Sunday 
the  chaplain  preaches  to  these  our  victims.  What 
about,  in  the  name  of  wonder?  Forgiveness,  very 
likely ;  or  peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men.  Nothing 
would  seem  incongruous  in  a  place  so  hideous." 

Subsequently  he  visits  the  "  cellar,"  described  as 
the  "  place  of  judgment  and  of  torture.  The  deputy 
warden  sat  as  the  court;  on  the  report  of  the  guard 
swift  sentence  was  pronounced.  Usually  the  offender 
was  condemned  to  be  paddled,  sometimes  to  the  bull 


DETERRENCE  — WORKED  TO  THE  LIMIT       45 

rings,  sometimes  to  the  water  cure,  and  in  the  cases 
of  old  offenders  to  all  three  —  one  after  another." 

This  art'cle  is  generously  garnished  with  aiifidavits. 
and  we  quote  from  that  of  William  Labarge,  to  ex- 
plain the  paddle  torture,  which  prison  authorities  are 
in  the  habit  of  treating  lightly.  He  says :  "  Three 
weeks  after  I  entered  the  Ohio  penitentiary  there  was 
a  couple  of  guards  arguing  about  politics  and  one  of 
the  convicts  (at  the  dinner  hour)  stuck  his  finger  up 
for  some  bread.  The  guards  did  not  seem  to  pay 
much  attention  to  him  so  I  passed  him  some  bread. 
T  was  reported  in  the  morning,  sent  to  the  cellar,  and 
the  deputy  gave  me  about  twelve  or  fourteen  licks 
with  a  wet  paddle  and  sanded,  and  every  time  he 
hit  me  it  seemed  to  take  the  flesh  right  off,  and  it  bled 
so  it  went  into  my  shoetops.  I  had  to  use  cotton  for 
two  or  three  weeks  in  order  that  it  would  not  stick  to 
my  clothing,  and  I  could  hardly  sit  down  to  eat,  it 
pained  me  so."  And  again :  "  While  I  was  working 
in  the  dining  room  I  saw  convicts  coming  in  from 
being  whipped  in  the  morning  for  refusing  to  go  to 
work  on  account  of  not  having  enough  to  eat,  so  that 
they  could  hardly  sit  down.  I  have  seen  convicts 
evenings  in  the  hall  who  would  show  you  where 
they  had  been  licked,  that  they  were  just  cut,  and  the 
flesh  wrinkled,  and  you  could  see  the  dry  blood  where 
it  ran  down  their  legs  —  if  I  have  seen  one  that  was 
licked  like  that  I  have  seen  forty  or  fifty  that  were 
in  awful  condition." 

The  explanation  of  the  water  cure  is  accompanied 
by  a  photograph  showing  this  hideous  form  of  pun- 
ishment being  administered  by  three  officials,  and  the 
process  is  described  thus :     "  Having  been  stripped. 


46  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

the  delinquent  is  manacled  in  the  great  bath  tub. 
At  the  height  of  his  neck  in  the  sides  of  the  tub  are 
grooves  and  in  these  play  great  wooden  clamps, 
carved  to  fit  the  human  body.  These  are  screwed  to- 
gether so  as  to  grip  in  a  vise  the  man's  chest  and 
arms.  In  front  of  him  is  a  faucet  and  a  bit  of  hose, 
throwing  a  smart  stream  of  water.  First  it  is  neces- 
sary to  get  the  man's  mouth  open  by  making  him  cry 
out  (which  is  usually  done  by  frightening  him), 
whereupon  the  water  streams  down  his  throat  and 
strangles  himi.  By  those  who  have  suffered  this 
treatment  the  sensations  are  said  to  be  indescribably 
horrible.  In  spite  of  his  reason  the  victim  feels  that 
with  the  most  excruciating  pains  he  is  being  tortured 
to  death.  I  understand  that  in  nine  cases  in  ten  the 
man  was  carried  away  insensible  and  sometimes  spent 
days  in  the  hospital.  If  he  died  I  don't  know  how 
the  facts  would  be  known.  'Tis  but  a  man  gone  — 
and  he  a  convict." 

The  penitentiary  now  under  review  is  that  which 
Brand  Whitlock  made  the  scene  of  his  "  Turn  of  the 
Balance  ",  and  those  who  have  read  that  admirable 
work  will  not  easily  forget  the  description  of  Archie's 
being  subjected  to  the  water  cure,  followed  im- 
mediately by  the  "  bull  rings  ",  which  means,  in  Mr. 
Russell's  words,  that  "  the  prisoner  is  strung  up  by 
the  wrists  in  a  dark  cell  and  thus  left  hanging,  like 
a  carcass  of  beef  ".  Brand  Whitlock's  description  of 
the  incident  is  as  follows :  "  The  next  day,  and  the 
next,  and  the  next  —  for  seven  days  —  Archie  hung 
in  the  bull  rings.  In  the  middle  of  the  eighth  day, 
after  his  head  had  been  rolling  and  lolling  about  on 
his  shoulders  between  his  cold,  swollen,  naked  arms, 


DETERRENCE  —  WORKED  TO  THE  LIMIT       47 

he  suddenly  became  frantic,  put  forth  a  mighty  effort, 
lifted  himself,  and  began  to  bite  his  hands  and  his 
wrists,  gnashing  his  teeth  on  the  steel  handcuffs,  yam- 
mering like  a  maniac." 

Mr.  Russell  cites  one  of  the  foremost  lawyers  in  Ohio, 
who  declares  that  he  has  had  a  long  and  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  workings  of  this  particular 
prison,  and  "  from  what  I  have  seen  and  heard,  I  may 
say  that  I  know  the  conditions  that  exist  and  I  feel 
perfectly  safe  in  making  the  assertion  that  every  state- 
ment concerning  prison  life  made  in  Brand  Whitlock's 
book,  *  The  Turn  of  the  Balance ',  is  realistic,  char- 
acteristic, and  true  of  the  Ohio  penitentiary." 

In  another  affidavit  given  by  Mr.  Russell  the  affiant 
remarks :  "  I  heard  they  did  away  with  the  hum- 
ming-bird just  a  little  before  I  came  there.  My !  that 
was  bad !  "  This  particular  piece  of  fiendishness  is 
described  thus :  "  Having  been  stripped  the  de- 
linquent was  fastened  on  his  back  in  a  shallow  metal 
tank  filled  with  water  and  connected  with  one  electrode 
from  a  dynamo ;  the  other  electrode  was  a  wet  sponge. 
Gloved  in  rubber  the  operator  took  the  wet  sponge  and 
passed  it  slowly  up  and  down  the  prisoner's  bare 
limbs.  As  it  went  his  muscles  corded  into  knots  and 
he  shrieked  aloud  until  he  fainted."  To  such  base 
uses  do  great  scientific  discoveries  come !  Mr.  Rus- 
sell gives  his  reasons  for  believing  that  this  species  of 
torture  has  been  in  use  within  the  last  ten  years. 

It  is  said  that  Ohio  has  set  herself  seriously  to 
work  to  revolutionize  the  conditions  that  have  pre- 
vailed in  her  penitentiary,  and  has  placed  a  man  of 
high  repute  and  humane  tendencies  in  charge.  As- 
suredly "  'tis  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished." 


48  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

That  the  Ohio  penitentiary  has  had  no  monopoly 
of  the  "  humming  bird  "  torture  is  evident,  for  the 
1908  report  of  the  committee  appointed  to  investigate 
the  state  institutions  of  IlHnois  has  this  to  say  of  the 
Chester  penitentiary :  "  The  electric  battery,  or 
'  humming  bird  ',  punishment  is  not  a  figment  of  the 
imagination,  but  was  a  potent  factor  in  subduing 
prisoners  at  one  time.  The  cominittee  realizes  that 
the  handling  of  convicts  is  a  difficult  problem,  and 
one  that  should  make  one  hesitate  to  hastily  criticise 
the  management.  It,  however,  feels  that  the  use  of 
an  electric  battery  for  this  purpose  is  too  dangerous 
and  is  too  liable  to  encourage  abuse  and  cruel  treat- 
ment to  be  used,  and  feels  that  it  should  not  be 
tolerated.  It  is  understood  that  it  is  no  longer  used 
for  the  purpose  of  punishment,  although  the  presence 
of  a  powerful  battery  is  liable  to  tempt  its  use.  It 
is  suggested  that  it  be  discarded."  From  the  delicate 
wording  of  the  protest  it  is  conjectured  that  none  of 
the  protestants  had  ever  undergone  this  particular 
form  of  discipline. 

Finally  consider  the  following  special  dispatch  to 
the  Los  Angeles  Times  from  Galveston,  Texas,  under 
date  of  November  6,  1909 :  "  The  legislative  commit- 
tee's investigation  of  the  state  penal  institutions  and 
treatment  of  convicts  on  the  farms,  as  well  as  in  the 
prisons,  reveals  the  fact  that  more  than  fifty  convicts 
have  been  killed  by  cruelties  and  whippings  within  a 
period  of  three  years  or  less. 

"  The  record  may  be  much  larger,  and  presumably 
is,  but  the  board  of  inquiry  finds  it  almost  impossible 
to  wring  the  evidence  from  the  convicts  whom  they 
examine. 


THE    "HUMMING    BIRD." 


Chained    in    a   metal    tank    the   victim   is   tortured   witli   electricity 
until  liis  muscles  cord  and  he  faints  from  pain.     See  page  47. 


50  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

"  The  majority  of  the  convicts  who  could  give 
positive  evidence  of  specific  cases  are  afraid  to  tell, 
because  they  fear  they  will  incur  hatred  of  the  guards 
at  the  penitentiaries,  and  on  the  convict  farms  and 
plantations.  As  illustrating  this  point,  a  long-term 
convict,  with  an  excellent  prison  record,  before  the 
committee  today  admitted  he  witnessed  at  least  three 
whippings,  the  victims  of  which  lived  but  a  few  days 
after  the  punishment,  but  he  begged  piteously  not  to 
be  forced  to  give  the  evidence. 

"  '  I  have  a  long  time  to  serve  here,  and  if  I  testify 
I  must  lead  a  dog's  life,  and  I  know  I  shall  be  given 
the  limit.' 

"  When  a  guard  beats  a  convict  into  insensibility 
the  guard's  word  goes  with  the  superintendent,  when 
the  guard  merely  explains  that  the  convict  showed 
fight  or  refused  to  obey  orders.  The  wh'pping  of 
convicts  until  their  bodies  were  a  mass  of  bleeding 
wounds,  with  leather  straps  two  feet  long  and  three 
inches  wide,  numbers  more  than  400  that  the  com- 
mission has  positive  evidence  of,  and  the  inquiry  is 
not  completed." 

The  latest  evidence  taken  before  the  legislative  ccmii- 
mittee  that  is  now  investigating  the  treatment  of 
convicts  in  Texas  more  than  bears  out  the  horrors  sug- 
gested in  the  foregoing  dispatch.  Thus  far  (November 
5,  1909,)  the  committee  has  listened  to  one  unvarying 
tale  of  indescribably  cruel  whippings,  inflicted  usually 
for  the  most  trifling  offenses,  and  even,  as  it  is  stated, 
for  "  nothing  at  all."  But  the  cause  most  generally 
assigned  is  that  the  convicts  were  not  doing  enough 
work  to  suit  the  bosses.  What  this  means  may  be 
gathered  from  the  testimony  given  by  a  convict  who 


DETERRENCE  —  WORKED  TO  THE  LIMIT       51 

had  been  transferred  from  a  farm  where  the  com- 
mittee had  taken  testimony  recently.  The  sergeant 
referred  to  had  been  much  incensed  at  the  news  that 
convicts  had  given  evidence,  and  the  manner  in  which 
he  took  revenge  is  described  as  follows : 

"  A  few  days  later  he  put  white  men  and  negroes  to 
hoeing,  telling  the  white  men  they  must  keep  up  with 
the  negroes,  and  the  negroes  that  they  must  not  let 
the  white  men  catch  them.  The  competition  was  so 
fierce  that  some  of  the  men  fell  out.  Next  day  the 
sergeant  came  out^  tied  a  negro  to  the  horn  of  his 
saddle  and  beat  the  negro  with  a  quirt.  Every  time 
a  lick  was  struck  the  horse  jumped,  pulling  the  negro 
around.  All  this  time  the  sergeant  cursed  the  com- 
mittee. Next  day  the  sergeant  offered  a  prize  of  $1 
to  the  convict  who  would  pick  the  most  cotton.  One 
picked  550  pounds,  the  other  525.  The  sergeant  said 
he  had  a  good  notion  to  whip  the  latter,  as  he  had 
made  a  bet  of  50c  upon  him  and  lost.  Witness  told 
of  further  whippings  administered  by  the  sergeant. 

"  The  convict  described  a  visit  of  the  inspector  to 
the  camp.  The  inspector  said :  '  Boys,  how  are 
you  ? ' 

"  '  Getting  along  fine,'  they  all  answered  —  all  save 
one. 

"  This  one  said  :  '  Very  well  to  be  in  the  peniten- 
tiary.' 

"  The  sergeant  threatened  to  whip  this  man  if  he 
ever  said  a  thing  like  that  again. 

"  The  next  day  tHe  sergeant  came  to  the  field  on 
a  lope.  The  convict  says  he  was  drinking.  (The 
testimony  at  several  of  the  camps  has  been  to  the 
effect    that    intemperance    is    largely    responsible    for 


52  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

abuses.)  The  sergeant  got  a  man  down  and  whipped 
him. 

"  '  I  never  saw  such  licks  struck,'  said  the  convict. 
"  The  captain  would  whip  and  rest,  whip  and  rest. 
He   would   say  :     '  The   committee !     The   committee ' 

You  black,  educated .     You 

were  looking  for  the  committee  to  give  you  pie.  Fll 
give  you  pie,'  and  then  he  would  go  on  whipping." 

"  He  said  the  sergeant  kept  on  until  he  was 
whacking  the  men  over  the  head  indiscriminately." 

Further  testimony  was  to  the  effect  that  the  whip 
in  common  use,  and  known  as  "  the  red  heifer  ",  was 
six  feet  long  or  more,  that  it  was  soaked  in  lime  water 
before  being  applied,  and  that  the  officers  would  notch 
the  end  so  as  to  make  it  "  bite  ",  the  lash  being  applied 
with  a  jerk  that  tore  out  the  flesh.  One  particular 
officer,  referred  to  as  "  Sergeant  X  ",  was  said  to  have 
whipped  as  many  as  seven  or  eight  convicts  at  a 
time,  one  of  whom  received  ninety-three  strokes, 
whereas  the  limit  specified  by  the  law  is  thirty-nine. 
Another  convict  was  said  to  have  received  sixty-eight 
strokes,  and  this  particular  case  was  testified  to  by 
numerous  witnesses.  In  the  instances  of  two  negroes 
whipped  by  "  Sergeant  X  "  the  skin  came  off  at  every 
stroke  after  the  fifteenth.  Both  men  bled  profusely 
and  died  shortly  afterwards  in  the  Rusk  prison  hos- 
pital. 

At  the  order  of  the  committee  a  white  convict 
stripped,  and  the  scars  on  his  body  showed  plainly  that 
a  strap  had  been  used.  Furthermore  the  scars  were 
on  the  upper  portion  of  his  body,  thus  giving  the 
lie    to   testimony   previously    rendered   by   officials    to 


DETERRENCE  -  WORKED  TO  THE  UMIT       53 

the  effect  that  the  whip  was  used  only  on  the  lower 
portions. 

Sickening  details  of  other  whippings,  inflicted  by 
"Sergeant  Y  ''  and  others,  abound,  supported  by  cor- 
roborative testimony.  For  example,  the  committee 
noticed  that  one  negro  had  a  large  scar  on  his  throat 
and  drew  from  him  the  admission  that  he  had  endeav- 
ored to  kill  himself  in  order  to  escape  a  flogging, 
which  nevertheless  was  administered  three  weeks 
later.  Another  convict  said  that  he  ran  the  risk  of 
being  shot  rather  than  submit  to  whipping,  but  in 
his  case  also  the  punishment  was  carried  out.  An- 
other convict  told  the  committee  that  he  had  been 
whipped  twenty  times  in  four  years,  getting  on  one 
occasion  as  many  as  eighty-seven  licks ;  that  he  had 
chopped  off  a  finger  that  he  might  be  sent  away  from 
the  camp,  and  that  subsequently,  when  threatened  with 
another  whipping,  he  had  cut  off  two  more  fingers 
from  the  same  hand. 

Men  were  forced  to  continue  at  work  when  suffer- 
ing from  serious  illness,  and  gruesome  accounts  were 
given  of  the  treatment  administered  by  the  convict 
doctor,  who  was  not  a  doctor  at  all. 

Testimony  is  still  being  taken  as  we  go  to  press, 
but,  as  will  be  seen,  the  proceedings  thus  far  add 
another  revolting  chapter  to  the  history  both  of  peni- 
tentiaries and  convict  camps,  although  the  situation 
is  relieved  somewhat  by  evidence  to  the  effect  that 
conditions  at  the  Rusk  penitentiary  have  improved 
within  the  last  few  months. 

Throughout  the  investigation  testimony  was  given 
most  reluctantly  by  both  white  and  negro  convicts,  but 
by  the  latter  more  especially,   which  again  confirms 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


onr  constant  contention  that  convicts  are  far  more 
likely  to  conceal  than  to  exaggerate  the  ill  usage  to 
which  they  have  been  subjected. 

In  our  next  chapter  the  scene  will  be  shifted  to  the 
Pacific  coast.  Meanwhile  it  must  be  understood  that 
we  are  not  in  the  least  interested  in  the  piling  up 
of  horrors.  We  are  simply  establishing  a  scientific 
fact  of  the  very  first  importance,  viz.,  that  the  phil- 
osophy of  deterrence  has  been  worked  to  its  utmost 
limit  in  this  country.  Hereafter  we  shall  expect  to 
prove  that  it  has  failed  and  failed  conspicuously. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT 

The  following  detailed  and  most  graphic  account  of 
life  in  San  Quentin  is  furnished  by  Col.  Griffith  J. 
Griffith,  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the  Prison  Reform 
League. 

After  one  of  the  bitterest  and  most  sensational  crim- 
inal trials  in  the  history  of  Los  Angeles,  Col.  Griffith 
was  sentenced  to  two  years  in  San  Quentin,  having 
been  found  guilty  of  assault  with  a  deadly  weapon, 
despite  his  insistence  that  the  affair  was  accidental. 


As  we  started  for  San  Quentin  I  tried  desperately 
to  lose  myself  in  abstract  thought.  It  was  impossible. 
During  the  thirteen  months  passed  in  the  Los  Angeles 
county  jail,  where  I  had  awaited  the  trial  of  a  $20,000 
civil  suit,  hope  never  left  me.  The  fight  for  freedom, 
the  expectation  that  the  verdict  would  be  reversed,  had 
buoyed  me  up.     Now  all  that  was  over. 

I  shut  my  eyes,  but  could  not  shut  out  the  knowledge 
that  we  were  passing  through  the  long  familiar  streets, 
or  that  the  crowds  by  which  we  hurried  contained 
many  who  knew  me  well. 

With  the  boarding  of  the  train  came  inexpressible 
relief,  and  to  my  great  joy  the  sheriff  decided  that  I 
need  not  be  shackled.  I  am  blessed  with  a  strong 
frame,  an  excellent  constitution  and  good  nerves,  which 
my  life  as  a  mining  expert  and  live  stock  raiser  had 
kept  in  good  trim.  So,  as  the  cars  pounded  along 
through  the  desert,  I  composed  myself  and  thought. 


S6  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

Hour  after  hour  I  thought,  steadily  and  hard ;  review- 
ing the  past,  sizing  up  the  future. 

I  had  no  regrets ;  I  never  have.  The  past  had  its 
merits  and  defects.  So  have  all  pasts.  The  only 
question  worth  considering  was  whether  the  failures 
could  be  turned  to  gains.  The  future  was  the  thing, 
and  again  I  grew  hopeful.  Two  years,  less  the  cred- 
its I  certainly  should  earn,  would  quickly  pass  away. 
I  should  come  out  of  prison  a  comparatively  young 
man,  with  my  health,  as  I  devoutly  hoped,  intact  and 
the  world  once  more  before  me.  My  health.  That 
was  the  main  point.  I  must  take  care  of  that.  What- 
ever happened  I  must  keep  my  self-control.  If  possi- 
ble I  must  make  hosts  of  friends,  and  I  must  not  fall. 
I  thought  it  all  out  in  the  long  vigil  of  a  sleepless 
night. 

How  life  would  shape  itself  in  detail  during  the 
next  two  years  I  could  not  tell,  but  with  health,  self- 
control  and  the  exercise  of  intelligence  I  should  be 
certain  to  win  out.  Without  forming  any  distinct  res- 
olutions I  mapped  out  a  general  line  of  conduct  which 
one  might  reasonably  hope  to  follow.  I  tried  my  best 
to  discard  "  illusions,  delusions  and  hallucinations  " — 
terms  repeatedly  used  during  my  trial.  I  was  bent  on 
self-preservation,  but  I  decided  that,  while  adapting 
myself  to  circumstances,  I  would  not  stoop,  if  it  could 
possibly  be  avoided.  I  must  maintain  my  personality 
at  almost  any  cost. 

It  was  early  morning  as  we  neared  San  Quentin  and 
much  of  my  customary  cheerfulness  had  returned. 
The  gray  walls  suddenly  jumped  into  sight,  and  almost 
before  I  knew  it  the  steel-ljarred  gates  had  swung 
open,  had  closed  again  and  liberty  had  been  left  behind. 


S8  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

I  took  a  firm  grip  on  myself  and  held  it  throughout 
the  humiliating,  the  intensely  humiliating  formalities 
that  followed  —  the  bath,  the  shave,  the  Bertillon  exam- 
ination, the  photographing,  the  assignment  of  the 
number  by  which  thenceforth  one  would  be  known. 
Finally  I  found  myself  dressed  in  convict  garb,  and, 
with  my  bedding  under  my  arm,  bound  for  my  cell. 
The  door  clanged  to,  and  at  last  I  was  alone. 

I  may  mention  at  this  point  that  I  had  been  told  in 
the  Los  Angeles  sheriff's  office  that  certain  articles  of 
comfort  for  wear  would  be  allowed  to  ntodel  prison- 
ers, so,  with  the  consent  of  the  sheriff,  I  took  with  me 
some  good  underclothes,  several  pairs  of  socks,  hand- 
kerchiefs and  a  large  feather-pillow.  Turnkey  Mur- 
'phy,  on  my  arrival  at  San  Quentin,  commanded  me 
to  turn  them  all  over  to  him,  together  with  every 
stitch  of  clothes  on  my  body.  I  never  saw  any  of  the 
articles  again.  He  also  refused  to  admit  some  excel- 
lent new  books  I  had  brought  with  me  until  I  had 
given  my  promise  that,  after  reading,  I  would  donate 
them  to  the  Roman  Catholic  library,  to  be  added  to 
their  collection  of  two  thousand  volumes.  This  was 
the  first  I  knew  of  a  sectarian  library  being  maintained 
by  the  state. 

My  rough  undergarments  irritated  me  horribly;  the 
fetid  prison  air,  heavy  with  the  taint  of  humanity, 
weighed  on  my  nostrils ;  the  cell,  of  steel  from  floor 
to  ceiling,  chilled  me  through  and  through.  But  I  was 
at  least  alone.  My  thoughts  became  busy  with  the 
future,  and  presently  physical  fatigue  asserted  itself. 
I  threw  myself  on  my  bunk  and  fell  into  the  profound- 
est  sleep.  Seldom  have  I  passed  a  better  night,  as  I 
woke  only  once,  having  been  disturbed  by  the  g-uard 
on  his  hourly  round. 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT 59 

With  the  sound  of  the  gong  at  six  o'clock  next 
morning  my  life  as  a  member  of  the  convict  world 
began.  The  door  of  my  cell  was  thrown  open  and  I 
found  myself  one  of  the  enormous  bucket  line, 
engaged  for  some  twenty  minutes  in  cleaning  corri- 
dors and  cells.  Each  man  brought  out  his  pail  con- 
taining the  slops  of  the  preceding  twenty-four  hours 
and  emptied  it  into  a  general  receptacle.  As  there 
were  hundreds  of  men  to  each  receptacle,  and  as  the 
latter  became  clogged  from  time  to  time,  the  process 
was  disgusting.  In  cold  and  rainy  weather  it  is 
attended  by  much  discomfort. 

At  this  time  of  day  conversation  is  usually  allowed, 
but,  although  I  was  the  subject  of  many  curious 
glances  and  some  remarks,  I  held  aloof,  fell  silently 
into  the  breakfast  line  and  shuffled  to  the  dining  hall, 
guards  flanking  the  line  throughout  its  march.  My 
place  was  pointed  out  to  me  in  silence,  and  in  silence 
I  devoured  a  scanty  and  hasty  meal.  The  line  rose 
at  a  signal  and  passed  out  to  the  jute-mill,  situate  in 
the  lowest  of  the  three  yards.  There  I  was  taught, 
in  a  few  hours,  "  spooling,"  a  branch  of  the  grain  sack 
making  business.  I  found  myself  one  of  some  eight 
hundred  prisoners,  under  the  direct  custody  of  a  dozen 
guards,  in  a  building  more  than  1,000  feet  long.  The 
roof  was  of  glass,  but  grimy  with  the  fluffy  soot  of 
the  material  handled,  so  that  the  light  was  far  from 
good.  Through  occasional  openings,  however,  one 
could  see  the  armed  guards  passing  to  and  fro  on 
the  walls  that  overlook  the  building,  ready  to  fi*" 
at  the  first  disturbance.  Above  all  stood  the  keepers 
of  the  Catling  guns  in  the  five  towers  that  command 
the  entire  situation. 


6o  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

I  remained  more  than  a  year  in  this  mill  and  put 
in  several  months  on  the  machine  to  which  I  had  been 
first  detailed.  After  that  I  was  placed  in  charge  of 
•one  that  turned  out  spools  of  three  different  kinds. 
As  these  had  to  be  delivered  in  various  parts  of  the 
building  I  was  compelled  to  move  about  a  good  deal 
and  thus  made  many  new  acquaintances,  much  to  my 
satisfaction. 

At  the  very  start  I  decided  that  even  in  such  monot- 
onous work  as  that  allotted  me  I  might  find  pleasure 
in  acquiring  dexterity  in  the  tying  of  strings  and  quick 
change  of  spools.  So  I  made  a  special  study  of  it  and 
began  to  note  with  interest  that  my  fingers  daily  were 
becoming  more  deft.  My  studies  unfortunately  were 
not  allowed  to  proceed  in  peace. 

As  I  stood  at  my  silent  task,  spools,  each  of  which 
weighed  several  ounces,  would  come  flying  over  from 
neighboring  machines.  Most  of  them  missed,  but  now 
and  then  one  hit  me  on  the  head.  In  fact  it  soon 
became  evident  that  I  was  the  mark  of  a  persistent 
bombardment,  and  the  reason  was  plain  enough 
Prison  gossip  had  concluded  that  I  belonged  to  the 
upper  world;  that  I  had  had  more  than  my  share  of 
the  good  things  of  life,  and  that  in  my  present  pun- 
ishment fate  was  getting  justly  even.  Class  con- 
sciousness intended  that  I  should  be  made  to  feel  this 
bitter  truth. 

For  some  time  I  paid  no  attention  to  these  little 
courtesies,  but  one  day  a  shuttle  wounded  me  some- 
what severely,  drawing  blood  which  trickled  down  my 
face  and  neck.  During  a  temporary  recess  I  seated 
myself  on  a  near-by  log  and  tried  to  stop  the  bleed- 
ing.   A  group  of  men  separated  itself  from  the  throng 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  it  6i 

and  came  toward  me.  "  Well,  quite  a  fall  for  you, 
eh  ?  "  said  the  one  who  evidently  was  the  leader,  and 
I  understood  the  sneer  in  his  voice.  "  Can  you  stand 
it  ?  "  he  continued.  It  was  clear  to  me  that  it  was 
now  or  never. 

"  Oh,  I  can  stand  it  well  enough,"  I  replied,  rising 
slowly  from  the  log.  "  I'm  as  tough  as  a  pine-knot, 
you  know.  How  tough  are  you  ? "  And  I  threw 
myself  into  a  fighting  attitude.  Recollections  of  the 
time  when  I  was  accounted  handy  with  the  gloves 
came  trooping  through  my  memory,  and  it  would  have 
given  me  profound  satisfaction  to  have  thrashed  my 
opponent  to  a  finish.  But  he  slunk  away  hastily  and 
I  at  once  resumed  my  seat.  I  immediately  bridled  the 
impulse  to  revenge,  and,  remembering  that  love  is 
reflected  in  love,  asked  myself  what  was  the  loving 
thing  to  do. 

A  guard  came  hurrying  up.  "  What  is  all  this  ?  " 
he  said.  "  Have  you  men  been  fighting?  "  I  assured 
him  that  there  had  been  no  fight.  He  insisted 
that  something  was  wrong  and  pointed  to  the  blood 
on  my  face,  but  I  explained  that  I  had  met  with  a 
slight  accident  while  at  my  work.  This  did  not  sat- 
isfy him  and  he  hauled  me  up  before  the  warden. 
There  I  was  questioned  closely,  but  I  stuck  to  my 
original  story  and  maintained  stoutly  that  I  had  no 
reason  to  complain  of  my  fellow-workers. 

Meanwhile  these  last  were  evidently  sweating  blood. 
All  their  experience  taught  them  that  a  fellow  "  con  " 
would  snap  at  the  chance  of  denouncing  them,  thus 
currying  favor  with  the  authorities;  and  that  the 
denunciation  would  be  followed  by  the  strait- jacket, 
the  solitary  cell  or  other  severe  form  of  punishment. 


^ CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

They  were  astonished  still  further  when  the  warden, 
who  seemed  kindly  disposed  to  me,  inquired  if  I 
would  not  like  to  be  taken  from  the  jute-mill  and  set 
to  work  as  clerk  in  the  laundry.  I  refused  the  offer 
as  politely  as  possible,  and  he  then  proposed  that  I 
should  be  employed  as  clerk  in  the  drug  department  — 
a  much  coveted  position,  since  it  carried  with  it  better 
food,  less  work  and  other  privileges.  But  I  refused 
again  and  begged  that  I  might  be  allowed  to  remain 
where  I  was,  explaining  that  I  was  becoming  quite  an 
€xpert  at  tying  weaver's  knots  and  found  pleasure  in 
the  work.  In  reality  I  wanted  to  make  myself  thor- 
oughly acquainted  with  the  life  of  the  jute-mill,  and 
had  no  fancy  for  being  interrupted  so  prematurely. 

With  the  same  desire  for  gathering  information  1 
took  steps  to  procure  removal  from  my  cell,  the  soli- 
tude of  which  had  been  so  welcome  the  night  of  my 
arrival.  I  wished  to  mix  with  my  fellows  and  take 
notes,  and  I  was  so  fortunate  as  to  be  placed  in  room 
"  A  ",  where  I  was  one  of  forty-eight.  The  reason  for 
my  request  being  granted  so  readily,  and  for  the  offers 
previously  made,  I  learned  only  at  a  much  later  date. 

This  removal  had  another  advantage  of  which  I 
then  knew  nothing,  for  my  new  quarters  were  imme- 
diately above  the  dungeons  in  which  torture  is  in- 
flicted, of  which  I  shall  speak  hereafter. 

Thus  I  had  found  at  a  jump  the  very  opportunities 
I  had  sought,  and  the  entire  spool  episode  had  consti- 
tuted a  genuine  psychological  moment.  Apparently  I 
had  made  friends  with  the  authorities ;  I  was  located 
exactly  where  I  most  wished  to  be,  and,  above  all,  I 
had  established  a  standing  with  my  fellow-prisoners. 
From  that  moment  I  began  to  learn  the  inner  life  of 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT  63 

the  prison;  I  became  the  recipient  of  confidences  and 
was  admitted  to  the  Brotherhood. 

Another  thing  stood  me  in  good  stead ;  I  do  not  use 
tobacco.  Now,  tobacco  is  the  coin  of  the  realm  in  San 
Quentin,  and,  although  each  prisoner  receives  a 
weekly  ration,  most  of  them  could  use  far  more.  So 
I,  as  the  possessor  of  the  much  desired  commodity, 
occupied  quite  a  commanding  capitalist  position. 

Experience  has  convinced  me  that  convicts  are  more 
sinned  against  than  sinning,  but  I  was  not  so  foolish 
as  to  suppose  that  I  should  not  find  my  new  compan- 
ions full  of  faults.  My  personal  belongings  were  poor 
enough,  but  I  had  a  watch  and  a  pair  of  reading 
glasses.  Although  I  tried  to  keep  a  sharp  lookout 
both  of  these  disappeared.  The  former  was  a  cheap 
affair,  but  it  was  erroneously  supposed  that  the  works 
were  valuable,  and  the  gang  that  took  it  showed  ludi- 
crous disappointment  when  it  discovered  the  worthless- 
ness  of  the  loot.  The  parts  were  returned  to  me  and 
I  ignored  the  matter.  My  glasses  I  advertised  in  the 
customary  way,  and  a  man  quickly  came  forward  and 
declared  he  would  get  them  back  if  I  would  give  him 
two  sacks  of  tobacco.  I  refused  to  be  bled  and  recov- 
ered the  glasses  without  paying  anything. 

Otherwise  I  had  no  trouble  with  my  room-mates. 
During  my  fourteen  months  in  room  "  A  "  only  one 
fight  took  place,  and  that  of  a  trifling  nature.  Sev- 
eral of  my  companions  had  been  found  guilty  of 
murder  and  were  in  for  life,  but  their  conduct  was 
excellent.  Several  others  were  quite  old  men,  one 
having  been  convicted  of  assault  after  he  had  passed 
his  eightieth  year,  while  another  celebrated  his 
seventieth   birthday   shortly    after    my   arrival.      The 


64  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

rest  were  in  for  petty  offenses.  We  had  a  few  who 
belonged  to  the  San  Francisco  hoodlum  gangs,  which 
are  notoriously  tough,  but  they  were  in  a  decided 
minority  and  the  example  of  the  others  kept  them 
decent. 

Lights  go  out  at  9  o'clock,  and  in  the  interval  be- 
tween supper  and  that  hour  we  were  free  to  talk, 
read  or  play  checkers,  cards  being  forbidden.  I  had 
been  anxious  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  outside  world, 
and,  inasmuch  as  no  convict  is  allowed  to  read  a  paper 
published  in  the  State  of  California,  I  had  subscribed 
for  the  Salt  Lake  Daily  Tribune  and  a  number  of 
leading  periodicals.  These  came  to  me  regularly, 
being  sent  direct  by  the  publishers,  for  literature  is 
not  admitted  when  sent  by  friends.  I  quickly  found 
that  my  companions  were  hungry  for  news,  and  it 
soon  became  an  established  custom  for  me  to  read  to 
them  some  two  hours  an  evening.  A  more  interested 
audience  than  that  which  gathered  round  me,  squatted 
on  four-legged  stools,  I  never  expect  to  command. 

For  my  part  I  found  that  the  backless  stool,  after 
a  day  passed  on  my  feet  before  the  spooling  machine, 
was  most  fatiguing,  and  I  noticed  that  there  were  one 
or  two  who  enjoyed  the  luxury  of  chairs.  I  made 
inquiries  of  the  room  tender  and  he  told  me  that  an 
old  soldier  in  the  opposite  corridor  had  a  chair  he 
would  sell  for  seven  sacks  of  tobacco.  I  had  accumu- 
lated only  five,  but  I  opened  negotiations,  got  credit 
for  the  other  two  and  that  evening  reveled  in  the 
luxury  of  a  rocker.  Early  next  morning  I  was  sum- 
moned to  the  captain's  office. 

Immediately  the.  whisper  ran  around  that  Griffith 
was  to  be  "  jobbed ",  and  when  I  reached  the  in- 
quisitorial room  I  myself  began  to  think  that  some- 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT  65 

thing  serious  was  on  foot,  for  the  warden,  captain  of 
the  guard  and  the  captain  of  the  jute-mill  were  all 
there  in  solemn  session,  surrounded  by  their  special 
"  runners  ".  I  said  "  Good  morning  "  and,  receiving 
no  reply,  asked :  "  Is  there  anything  I  can  do  for 
you,  Warden  ? "  I  was  then  told,  in  the  gruffest 
manner,  that  I  had  violated  a  most  important  rule  in 
trading  my  tobacco  for  a  chair.  I  pleaded  ignorance 
and  added  that  I  had  read  that  the  director  of  a  cer- 
tain prison  had  decided  to  stop  the  issuance  of  tobacco, 
that  the  order  was  rescinded  in  consequence  of  public 
indignation,  and  that  those  who  did  not  use  tobacco 
were  now  allowed  credits  for  employment  in  other 
ways.  I  intimated  that  this  would  be  a  sensible  rule 
for  San  Quentin  to  adopt,  and  after  a  consultation  I 
was  discharged.  This  incident  is  given  merely  to 
show  how  arbitrary  are  many  of  the  rules  the  prison 
authorities  are  continually  passing,  each  of  which  is  a 
trap  for  the  unwary  and  an  excuse  for  punishment 
that  is  often  unmerited  and  frequently  most  severe. 
April  18,  1906,  brought  the  San  Francisco  earth- 
quake and  fire.  Many  of  the  convicts  had  relatives 
and  friends  in  the  city,  some  had  property,  and  all 
were  keenly  interested  in  whatever  news  could  be  ob- 
tained. I  appealed  to  the  warden,  therefore,  to  dis- 
pense for  the  time  being  with  the  rule  that  forbade 
the  reading  of  papers  published  in  the  state.  The 
matter  was  taken  under  advisement  for  several  days, 
but  the  request  was  refused.  The  demand  for  news 
continued,  however,  insatiable,  and  for  a  long  time  I 
was  kept  busy  at  nights  reading  column  after  column 
of  such  information  as  could  be  had.  The  views  of 
scientific  men  on  the  causes  of  the  earthquake  excited 
the  most  lively  discussions. 


66  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

I  may  add  here  that  I  had  made  a  previous  appeal 
which  had  proved  somewhat  more  successful.  The 
time  allowed  for  meals  was  obviously  insufficient,  and 
one  day,  when  we  had  unusually  bony  fish  for  dinner, 
the  signal  to  rise  was  given  before  any  of  us  was 
half  way  through  his  portion.  I  had  taken  careful 
note  of  the  time  and  had  found  that,  including  the 
delays  incident  to  entering  and  leaving  the  hall,  only 
fourteen  minutes  had  elapsed.  I  complained  and  next 
time  we  were  granted  eighteen  minutes.  The  quality 
of  the  food  served  in  San  Quentin  has  been  most 
severely  criticised  from  time  to  time,  and,  in  my  judg- 
ment, even  if  the  quality  were  good,  it  would  not 
constitute  a  healthy  diet  for  men  living  in  confine- 
ment. Breakfast  usually  consisted  of  coffee,  bread, 
potatoes  and  beans,  butter  being  unknown.  Dinner 
was  apt  to  consist  of  pork  and  beans,  with  tough  beef 
steamed  and  called  "  steak "  as  a  variety,  and  fish 
about  once  a  week.  Supper  was  a  repetition  of  break- 
fast. Occasionally  there  was  mush,  accompanied  by 
an  extremely  thin  syrup  dignified  with  the  name  of 
molasses.  My  teeth  and  digestion  are  excellent,  but 
for  those  who  were  not  so  blessed  the  diet  must  have 
been  trying;  and  beans,  which,  with  bread,  were  the 
staple,  are  extremely  hard  on  many  men. 

In  reaHty  the  quality  of  much  of  the  food  was 
execrable.  The  meat  was  served  largely  in  a  form 
known  as  "  deep  water  stew  ",  which  was  admirably 
calculated  to  conceal  its  tainted  condition.  The 
mouldy  beans  were  often  too  rank  for  cooking  and 
were  hauled  in  large  quantities  to  the  hog  ranch, 
where  about  four  hundred  hogs  were  kept.  The  po- 
tatoes were  small,  watery  and  full  of  worm  holes. 
The  coffee  was  such  that  it  was  difficult  to  tell  whether 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT  67 

it  professed  to  be  coffee  or  tea.  In  the  Scientific 
American  I  had  read  of  a  simple  test,  and  this  I  tried. 
A  roommate  who  worked  in  the  kitchen  brought  a 
small  quantity  of  the  ordinary  ground  coffee,  and  this 
we  placed  in  a  glass  nearly  full  of  cold  water.  Since 
coffee  is  rich  in  oil  it  should  have  floated.  Fully  two- 
thirds  of  the  stuff  on  which  we  experimented  sank  to 
the  bottom. 

The  natural  inference  from  these  experiences  was 
that  graft  must  be  rife,  and  the  more  intelligent  and 
older  prisoners  with  whom  I  talked  were  all  of  that 
opinion,  going  so  far  as  to  declare  that  not  so  much 
as  a  match  came  into  the  prison  without  there  being 
a  rake-off  for  some  one,  and  that  this  condition  had 
prevailed  for  the  last  sixty  years.  They  all  agreed, 
however,  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  trace  it  from 
the  books.  I  have  been  at  some  pains  to  look  into  this 
matter  since  my  release,  and  my  investigations  have 
all  tended  to  confirm  the  statements  made  by  these 
convicts. 

Meanwhile  the  daily  task  in  the  jute-mill  continued. 
The  spool  incident  had  put  me  on  good  terms  with 
many  of  my  co-workers,  but  for  a  time  the  actions 
of  the  captain  of  the  mill  gave  me  much  disquiet.  One 
California  paper  has  maintained  recently,  with  a  fine 
but  ridiculous  show  of  indignation  over  charges  I 
have  made,  that  state  prison  officials  are  chosen  for 
their  fitness  and  not  for  private  or  political  reasons. 
I  have  stated  repeatedly  in  public  that  the  then  war- 
den, J.  W.  Tompkins,  delighted  in  reminding  the 
prisoners  that  they  were  sent  there  expressly  to  be 
punished  —  a  hint  his  underlings  were  not  slow  to 
take.  Randolph,  the  captain  of  the  yard,  said  to  be 
partly  Indian,  was  notoriously  cruel,  but  it  was  uni- 


68  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

versally  admitted  that  Leahy,  the  captain  of  the  jiitc- 
mill,  where  the  g^reat  bulk  of  prisoners  is  employed, 
was  the  worst  of  all. 

This  man  had  been  originally  a  fish  peddler  in  San 
Francisco,  and  subsequently  became  a  member  of  the 
detective  force  there.  He  showed  on  all  occasions  a 
malicious  delight  at  the  sight  of  sickness  and  suffer- 
ing such  as  I  have  never  seen  exhibited  by  any  other 
man.  On  me  he  began  to  play  a  peculiar  trick.  He 
carried  an  exceptionally  heavy  cane,  and  he  would 
come  softly  behind  me,  while  I  was  busy  with  my 
work,  and  strike  it  suddenly  on  the  concrete  floor 
within  an  inch  or  so  of  my  toes.  I  bore  this  in  silence 
many  days,  and  also  passed  unnoticed  an  occasion 
when  he  nearly  succeeded  in  causing  me  an  awkward 
fall.  But  all  patience  has  its  limits,  and  one  day  I 
turned  on  him  and  said :  "  I  am  trying  so  to  con- 
duct myself  as  to  merit  the  good-will  of  all  before  I 
leave.  If  I  do  not  succeed  I  shall  publicly  discuss 
the  reason  why."  The  thinly  veiled  threat  of  future 
exposure  had  its  effect  (what  effect  would  it  have  had 
if  I  had  been  an  obscure  pauper?),  and  this  particular 
nuisance  ceased ;  but  shortly  afterwards,  when  I  was 
taken  suddenly  and  seriously  ill,  this  man  refused  to 
allow  me  to  leave  the  mill,  although  my  intense  suf- 
fering was  obvious  to  all. 

That  I  recovered  from  this  attack  was  due  to  the 
skilled  services  of  a  room-mate  who  was  a  well-known 
doctor  before  his  conviction  for  an  offense  of  which 
I  believe  him  to  have  been  entirely  innocent.  Today 
he  is  once  more  a  free  man,  doing  an  enormous  prac- 
tice and  beloved  by  all  the  county  in  which  he  lives. 
But  he  had  means  at  his  command,  and  his  was  not 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT  69 

the  ordinary  case  of  the  convict  thrust  out  into  the 
world  without  money  or  friends. 

From  the  regular  prison  doctor  I  got  no  relief,  as 
I  declined  his  invariable  remedy  known  as  the  "  bomb- 
shell ",  a  painful  cathartic  most  unsuited  to  my  case. 
This  man,  though  rude  and  brutal,  was  better  than 
his  successor,  Dr.  Summers,  whose  mania  was  that 
the  injection  of  a  32-inch  rubber  hose  and  a  gallon 
of  water  was  the  cure  for  all  ailments.  T  have  heard 
strong  men  howl  with  agony  during  this  treatment, 
which  was  administered  most  mercilessly. 

Thus  far  my  narrative  has  had  little  sensation  to 
offer.  Why  should  it  have?  The  uniform  tragedy 
of  prison  life  is  its  cruel  monotony ;  the  useless,  thank- 
less, unremunerated  task  worked  out  daily  under  the 
rifles  of  the  guards.  This  and  the  fact  that  always 
"  the  eye  that  watches  through  the  door  is  pitiless  and 
hard  ".  But  I  was  soon  to  learn  that  this  steady  pain 
has  its  frequent  spasms  of  acute  agony,  although  this 
knowledge  did  not  come  at  first.  There  is  constant 
effort  to  preserve  appearances,  and  it  is  with  all  the 
secrecy  possible  that  actual  physical  torture  is  applied. 
Before  considering  this  subject,  however,  I  wish  to 
give  one  or  two  more  instances  of  that  heartlessness 
which  is  the  invariable  note. 

Few  things  excited  more  general  indignation  dur- 
ing my  stay  in  San  Quentin  than  the  wantonly  sense- 
less order  suddenly  issued  by  Warden  Tompkins  that 
all  pictures  and  books,  other  than  those  belonging  to 
the  prison  library,  be  taken  from  the  cells  and  burned. 
Many  convicts  had  in  their  cells  pictures  of  their  loved 
ones,  to  which  they  clung  desperately  as  the  one  bright 
spot  in  a  colorless  existence.  The  order  was  executed 
ruthlessly,  a  huge  bonfire  being  kept  going  for  days. 


70  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

I  had  numerous  proofs  of  the  bitter  heartaches  this 
truly  tyrannical  edict  caused,  and  it  has  stuck  in  my 
memory  as  a  typical  brutality.  The  present  warden, 
I  am  happy  to  think,  is  incapable  of  such  an  act. 

Another  simple  incident  that  occurred  about  the 
same  time  affected  me  painfully.  There  is  an  aged 
professor  now  living  in  California,  utterly  broken  in 
health,  who,  before  his  commitment  to  San  Quentin, 
was  a  celebrated  botanist  and  closely  allied  to  one  of 
California's  most  famous  governors,  having  been  his 
secretary.  This  veteran's  trial  on  a  charge  of  forgery 
was  one  of  note  and  was  much  discussed.  At  the  time 
of  my  own  incarceration  he  had  been  in  San  Quentin 
some  fourteen  years,  and  was  about  70  years  of  age. 
As  head  gardener  he  had  done  wonderful  work,  hav- 
ing raised  hundreds  of  thousands  of  choice  plants, 
the  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  which  went  —  one 
knows  not  where.  For  even  vegetables,  which  flour- 
ished greatly  under  his  care,  rarely  found  their  way 
to  the  prisoners'  table. 

This  old  man  fainted  on  the  stairs  one  day  and  had 
to  be  taken  to  the  hospital.  He  had  complained  to 
me  previously  that,  owing  to  poor  teeth,  it  was  im- 
possible for  him  to  masticate  his  food.  Still  under 
the  delusion  that  I  was  in  favor  with  the  warden,  I 
ventured  to  call  on  him  and  pleaded  the  old  man's 
cause  with  all  the  energy  at  my  command,  reminding 
the  warden  that  this  sufferer  had  done  loyal  service 
for  many  years,  and  that,  like  an  aged  and  faithful 
horse,  he  needed  special  care.  I  begged  for  him  one 
of  the  easy  clerical  positions  that  I  myself  had  recently 
declined,  but  my  plea  was  grufifly  denied. 

In  my  judgment  the  influence  of  Warden  Tompkins 
.vas  an  evil   one   throughout.     I   am  no  prude   and 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT  71 

seldom  make  wry  faces  at  the  class  of  stories  that  are 
described  as  "  off  color."  But  I  dislike  filth,  and 
consider  it  well  nigh  unpardonable  when  disseminated 
by  the  head  of  an  establishment  in  which  sexual  de- 
generacy is  one  of  the  ever  present  dangers.  Now, 
among  the  curious  documents  in  my  possession  is  a 
stenographic  report  of  the  stories  that  this  man  Tomp- 
kins indulged  in  at  his  last  prison  banquet,  attended 
by  the  entire  official  force.  The  stories  are  not  amus- 
ing, they  are  plain  bestiality,  and  of  course  they  went 
the  rounds. 

In  short  I  put  it  mildly  when  I  say  that  the  San 
Quentin  officials  were  of  a  most  inferior  type,  and  it 
was  this  discovery  which  partly  determined  me  to 
work  on  my  release  for  the  transformation  of  the 
penitentiary  into  a  reformatory.  I  harbored  no  de- 
lusion to  the  effect  that  the  system  would  be  revolu- 
tionized by  such  a  change,  but  I  saw  clearly  that  the 
first  step  toward  a  better  treatment  of  prisoners  lay 
in  the  introduction  of  a  better  class  of  officials.  More- 
over, it  is  easy  enough  to  see  why  it  is  that  the  poli- 
ticians uphold,  in  their  entirety,  the  conditions  as 
they  now  exist,  and  as  they  have  existed,  with  little 
amelioration,  for  the  last  sixty  years.  It  is  simply 
because  not  one  out  of  a  hundred  of  their  appointees 
could  pass  such  an  examination  as  any  decent  re- 
formatory system  would  impose  as  a  prerequisite  to 
employment. 

I  had  been  mistaken  in  supposing  I  was  in  favor 
with  the  warden,  but  it  was  only  at  a  much  later  date 
that  I  was  able  to  grasp  the  true  situation.  In  real- 
ity I  had  been  guilty  of  an  unpardonable  crime,  having 
unconsciously  avoided  the  trap  set  for  me,  as  it  is 
invariably  set  for  all  who  are  supposed  to  be  pos- 


7^2  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

sessed  of  means.  It  was  only  when  I  got  on  close 
terms  with  a  leading  official  that  I  learned  that  the 
intention  had  been  to  bleed  me,  a  trusted  "  con,"  who 
was  serving  a  life  sentence,  being  used  as  the  stool 
pigeon.  According  to  this  scheme  I  was  to  be  given 
a  soft  job,  then  suddenly  degraded,  then  restored  and 
so  kept  on  the  see-saw,  being  rewarded  or  punished 
in  proportion  to  the  readiness  with  which  I  gave  up 
money.  This  plan  I  had  upset  by  my  insistence  on 
remaining  in  the  jute-mill  and  my  anxiety  to  share 
the  ordinary  prisoner's  lot.  The  reason  why  my  re- 
quest for  a  transfer  to  room  "  A  "  had  been  granted 
so  readily  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  "  con "  selected 
for  my  case  was  an  inmate  of  that  room. 

One  favorite  method  of  working  the  man  of  any 
means,  however  small,  is  to  praise  him  for  his  good 
behavior  and  hold  out  hope  of  speedy  parole.  The 
victim  is  then  advised  on  the  quiet  to  secure  the  ser- 
vices of  a  certain  lawyer  who  has  a  special  pull,  and 
the  negotiations  are  delayed  indefinitely  while  the  con- 
vict is  putting  up  his  last  dollar  in  the  hope  of  re- 
gaining his  liberty.  I  have  the  particulars  of  several 
such  cases,  and  one  in  which  the  convict  bravely  re- 
fused to  pauperize  himself  at  the  behest  of  a  repre- 
sentative of  a  former  governor  of  California.  That, 
in  the  past,  pardons  depended  largely,  if  not  solely,  on 
the  ability  of  the  prisoners  to  pay  was  notorious,  and 
the  figures  on  this  head  in  the  state  library  are  most 
suggestive  reading. 

The  truth  is  that  the  official  life  of  San  Quentin  bur- 
rows deeply  underground.  The  prison  was  operated 
on  the  spy  systcmi,  and  the  most  intrinsically  vicious 
were  naturally  used  as  being  the  most  pliant  tools. 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT 73^ 

There  were  in  my  time  about  loo  specially  favored 
convicts,  who  had  soft  jobs,  ate  at  special  tables,  had 
superior  food  and  enjoyed  other  privileges  which, 
though  in  a  life  of  freedom  they  might  appear  trifling, 
are  rated  in  prison  as  of  inestimable  value.  These 
favors  were  won  mainly  by  Judas  service ;  they  went 
to  the  most  contemptible  of  his  kind,  the  stool  pigeon. 
Revenge  and  greed  are  the  moving  passions  that 
actuate  such  men,  and  the  helplessness  —  the  unspeak- 
able helplessness  —  of  the  caged  and  voiceless  convicts 
furnishes  the  unlimited  opportunity. 

In  the  enormous  majority  of  cases  of  cruelty  and 
gross  injustice  documentary  proof  cannot,  by  the 
very  nature  of  the  circumstances,  be  obtained ;  but  it 
is  possible  for  one  w^ho,  like  myself,  has  talked  re- 
peatedly and  intimately  with  those  who  actually  know, 
to  reach  conclusions  that  have  all  the  force  of  moral 
certainty.  If  I  could  convey  to  my  readers  a  clear 
mental  picture  of  the  conditions  under  which  most 
of  the  numerous  confidences  I  received  were  given ; 
if  they  could  only  have  witnessed  the  hesitancy,  the 
dread  lest  the  information  given  should  be  traced  to 
the  informant,  causing  him  to  be  "  jobbed  "  or  tor- 
tured ;  if  I  could  make  them  understand,  as  I  under- 
stand, that  the  men  had  everything  to  gain  and  noth- 
ing to  lose  by  keeping  silent,  they  would  comprehend 
that  testimony  so  acquired  is  most  reliable.  During 
nearly  three  years  passed  in  jail  and  prison  I  unre- 
mittingly pursued  my  investigations,  and  throughout 
the  three  years  that  have  elapsed  since  I  regained  lib- 
erty I  have  been  gathering  up  the  threads  of  the  evi- 
dence accumulated;  confirming,  eliminating  and  as- 
suring myself  at  every  point. 


74 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

Even  when  the  evidence  is  complete  and  conclusive 
it  is  most  difficult  to  use  it.  I  have  affidavits  to  which 
in  all  probability  I  shall  be  unable  to  give  publicity 
for  years  to  come,  lest  men  still  in  confinement 
should  suffer  from  my  indiscretion,  and  others  who 
are  out  on  parole  be  spotted  and  jobbed  back.  I 
even  hesitate  to  call  attention  to  the  following  sample 
case,  but  the  fact  that  the  leading  incidents  occurred 
under  officials  who  are  no  longer  in  power,  and  the 
additional  fact  that  the  affiair,  in  its  earlier  stages, 
was  discussed  vehemently  by  the  San  Francisco  press, 
seem  to  justify  me  in  speaking  out. 

Boston  Blackie,  a  long  termer,  together  with  an 
Irishman  and  a  negro,  both  now  dead,  had  been  tor- 
tured for  many  days  in  the  strait- jacket.  All  three 
emerged  from  the  dungeon  crippled  for  life.  Shortly 
afterwards  the  Irishman  and  the  negro  finished  their 
terms,  were  discharged  and  went  to  San  Francisco, 
where  it  was  found  that  each  had  lost  the  use  of  his 
arms.  The  negro  at  once  became  a  public  charge,  as 
he  could  not  lift  his  hands  to  his  mouth  to  feed  him- 
self. The  papers  took  the  matter  up,  the  legislature 
happened  to  be  then  in  session  and  a  committee  of 
investigation  was  appointed.     What  followed? 

Just  what  always  follows.  Long  before  the  com- 
mittee reached  San  Quentin  every  preparation  had 
been  made  to  give  it  a  hearty  welcome,  and  the  ground 
had  been  well  arranged.  The  main  difficulty  lay  in 
the  fact  that  Blackie  would  have  to  testify.  His  hip 
had  been  disjointed  by  the  strait- jacket,  with  the  re- 
sult that  one  leg  was  permanently  shorter  than  the 
other.  The  question  was  how  to  "  fix  "  Blackie,  and 
the  question  was  answered  easily.     He  was  given  to 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT  75 

understand  clearly  that  if  his  testimony  was  unfavor- 
able he  would  be  put  again  to  torture;  but  that  if  it 
was  favorable  he  would  be  rewarded  with  an  easy 
berth.  So  Blackie,  who  had  never  known  what 
rheumatism  was,  swore  readily  that  his  injury  was 
due  entirely  to  that  disease,  and  that  his  experience 
in  the  strait- jacket,  by  the  warmth  it  engendered,  had, 
if  anything,  done  him  good.  Blackie  committed  per- 
jury at  the  compulsion  of  the  authorities,  the  commit- 
tee reported  favorably  and  the  storm  blew  over. 

But  the  full  details  of  this  case  are  known  to  hun- 
dreds, and  prison  opinion,  in  which  I  myself  concur, 
justifies  Blackie's  course.  Self-preservation  is  nature's 
basic  law,  and  Blackie's  life  was  at  the  mercy  of  the 
officials  who  dictated  his  testimony.  Every  convict  is 
equally  helpless,  and  this  helplessness  is  the  funda- 
mental fact  that  must  not  be  forgotten.  For,  how- 
ever much  mankind  may  have  succeeded  in  curb- 
ing autocratic  despotism  elsewhere,  in  such  establish- 
ments as  San  Quentin  it  reigns  in  all  its  pristine 
vigor,  holding  the  keys  of  life  and  death. 

Flogging  is  no  longer  permitted  as  an  official  pun- 
ishment in  San  Quentin,  but  the  older  convicts  will 
give  you  awful  accounts  of  the  tragedies  of  former 
years,  when  it  was  a  common  occurrence  to  see  pris- 
oners stripped  naked  and  beaten  till  the  blood  formed 
a  pool  around  their  feet.  They  point  out  where  the 
whipping  post  stood  and  tell  terrible  stories  of  men 
done  to  death  with  fiendish  cruelty.  It  may  be  said 
that  this  belongs  to  the  past,  but  the  basic  factor  in 
the  case  —  the  helpless  convict  at  the  mercy  of  his 
too  often  brutal  keepers  —  remains  unchanged.  1 
have  given  in  the  Blackie  case  one  instance ;  let  me 


76  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

add,  at  the  risk  of  unduly  harrowing  my  readers, 
others  from  my  own  personal  experiences. 

It  is  rarely  that  morphine  finds  its  way  into  the 
prison,  all  officers  being  on  the  watch  against  it.  A 
man  named  Edwards,  who  now  lives  in  Los  Angeles, 
had  come  from  the  east  and  found  his  way  into  San 
Quentin.  He  was  a  skilled  mechanic  and  had  proved 
as  such  most  useful,  but  he  suffered  greatly  with  his 
stomach  from  bean  diet,  and  was  often  compelled  to 
lie  down  after  eating.  A  stool  pigeon  pointed  out 
this  peculiarity  and  declared  that  Edwards  was  a  dope 
fiend  and  probably  engaged  in  smuggling  opium  into 
the  prison.  The  unfortunate  man  was  a  stranger  to 
California  and  had  no  connections  on  the  outside. 
He  insisted  vehemently  that  he  would  not  know  opium 
if  he  saw  it,  but  the  warden's  instructions  to  the  cap- 
tain of  the  yard  were:     "  Lace  the in  the  jacket 

tight  and  keep  him  there  until  he  tells."  So  in  the 
jacket  Edwards  was  kept  for  what  is  said  to  con- 
stitute a  record,  140  hours,  and  he  emerged  —  crip- 
pled for  life.  I  know  this  man  well.  He  had  a 
powerful  physique  and  wonderful  endurance,  which 
doubtless  accounts  for  his  having  survived  the  ordeal. 
Today  he  is  a  helpless  wreck,  and  all  the  recompense 
he  received  is  Tompkins'  subsequent  acknowledgment 
that  a  mistake  was  made. 

This  episode  gave  rise  to  much  talk,  which  grew 
louder  when  J.  Wess  Moore  was  punished.  Moore 
was  serving  a  life  sentence  for  homicide,  having 
killed  a  man  in  a  dispute  over  a  mining  claim.  He 
always  protested  that  he  had  acted  in  self-defense. 
Anyhow,  he  had  been  a  model  prisoner,  and,  at  the 
date  referred  to,  was  librarian.  He  was  accused  of 
smuggling  a  letter  out  of  prison  by  the  "  grapevine  " 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT  tj 

route,  and  was  ordered  to  be  put  in  the  strait-, 
jacket.  Subsequently,  in  view  of  his  advanced  age, 
the  sentence  was  changed  to  soHtary  confinement, 
with  bread  and  water  diet.  Now  it  happened  thit 
Moore  had  been  a  G.  A.  R.  man  and  a  comrade  of 
one  of  the  guards.  The  latter  talked  the  matter  up 
during  one  of  his  visits  to  San  Francisco,  with  the 
result  that  influence  was  brought  to  bear  that  resulted 
in  Moore's  release  from  the  "  solitary "  and  the 
forced  resignation  of  Tompkins.  Moore  eventually 
was  paroled  and  proceeded  to  work  actively  for  prison 
reform,  being  a  man  of  education.  Being  too  out- 
spoken he  has  recently  been  returned  to  San  Quentin 
for  further  punishment. 

I  may  state  here  that  each  prisoner  is  allowed  to 
send  out  only  one  letter  a  month,  and  that  if  he  wishes 
to  exceed  this  limit  he  must  obtain  a  special  permit 
from  the  warden,  which  was  then  a  matter  of  much 
difficulty.  In  December  I  had  sent  out  my  regular 
letter,  but  as  Christmas  drew  near  I  found  myself 
unable  to  resist  the  temptation  of  writing  to  my  son. 
My  application  to  the  warden  was  gruffly  refused  at 
first,  but  I  blazed  with  indignation  —  seldom  have  I 
been  so  angry  —  placed  the  letter  I  had  written  be- 
fore him,  that  he  might  read  it,  and  finally  obtained 
the  coveted  privilege. 

Returning  to  the  subject  of  torture,  here  is  another 
instance.  Joe  Fiddler  worked  beside  me  on  the  spool- 
ing machine  and  worked  well,  there  being  no  com- 
plaints. He  was  nearing  the  end  of  his  term,  having 
only  a  few  more  weeks  to  serve,  but  he  confided  to 
me  one  day  that  he  was  in  mortal  terror  of  a  certain 
guard  to  whom  he  had  given  unintentional  offense. 
Now  comes  the  sequel.    One  evening,  when  our  task 


78  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

was  done  and  we  were  about  to  fall  into  line,  Joe 
Fiddler  was  called  aside.  The  usual  mock  trial  was 
held  and  a  sentence  of  twenty- four  hours  in  the  jacket 
imposed.  I  heard  this  man's  cries  and  pitiful  appeals 
for  mercy  —  mercy  that  never  came.  His  shoulders 
were  crippled  by  the  jacket  and  I  myself  subsequently 
helped  him  to  dress.  He  then  told  me  in  detail  how 
he  had  been  jobbed  deliberately  by  Guard  No.  2  to 
satisfy  the  spite  of  Guard  No.  i. 

Workers  in  the  jute-mill  frequently  were  victimized 
thus.  As  I  have  said  before,  commitment  to  the  tor- 
ture dungeons  was  effected  as  quietly  as  possible,  the 
alleged  culprit  being  simply  ordered  to  drop  out  of 
line.  I  have  a  distinct  recollection  of  one  such  case 
shortly  after  my  arrival,  in  which  nine  men  were 
punished  severely  for  failing  to  produce  cloth  up  to 
standard.  In  many  such  instances  the  fault  lay  not 
with  the  workers,  but  with  the  rickety  old  loom  and 
material  supplied  them.  This  matter  I  investigated 
carefully,  for  during  my  term  in  prison  I  compiled  a 
brochure  on  the  subject  of  jute. 

Here  is  yet  another  case,  one  which  powerfully 
affected  the  hundreds  who  witnessed  it,  of  whom  I 
was  one.  A  poor  Italian,  working  on  the  hill  removal 
job,  fell  into  a  controversy  with  the  guard,  probably 
owing  to  his  entire  ignorance  of  English.  He  was 
ordered  to  the  "  solitary  "  for  strait- jacket  punish- 
ment and  protested  vehemently.  Four  guards  seized 
him,  but  he  cried  so  loudly  that  it  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  the  warden  and  the  captain  of  the  yard,  the 
latter  of  whom  placed  both  hands  on  the  man's  throat 
and  choked  him  into  silence  while  he  was  being 
dragged  away.  I  never  saw  this  man  again  and  know 
nothing  of  his  fate. 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT  79 

Why  did  not  we,  the  hvmdreds  of  us,  who  saw 
this  tragedy  and  sympathized  profoundly  with  the 
victim,  protest?  Simply  because  we  were  absolutely 
helpless.  There  were  125  guards,  each  a  walking 
arsenal.  In  addition  to  the  five  Catling  guns  there 
were  distributed  among  them,  or  held  in  reserve,  108 
Winchesters,  60  double-barreled,  loaded  shotguns, 
72  rapid-fire  revolvers  and  12,000  rounds  of  am- 
munition. Only  one  hopelessly  insane  would  dream 
of  resistance;  and,  in  my  judgment,  even  to  plot 
escape  is  proof  of  despair  run  mad. 

During  my  own  term  there  was  only  one  such  at- 
tempt, and  it  took  place  within  a  few  days  of  my 
arrival.  Three  men  lingered  behind  in  the  jute-mill 
after  the  day's  work  was  done  and  hid  under  some 
boxes,  hoping  to  make  their  way  out  that  night.  But 
the  line  is  counted  as  it  enters  and  leaves  the  mill, 
and  the  fact  that  three  were  missing  was  soon  de- 
tected. Thereupon  we  were  all  ordered  to  our  cells, 
search  was  made  and  the  culprits  were  discovered. 
The  exact  punishment  meted  out  to  them  I  never 
learned,  but  they  appeared  afterwards  clad  in  red 
shirts,  which  marked  them  as  the  special  target  for 
the  guards'  rifles  should  any  disturbance  arise.  These 
red  shirts  were  done  away  with  after  Warden  Tomp- 
kins' dismissal,  in  the  summer  of  1906. 

I  witnessed  one  demonstration,  however,  that  was 
irrepressible  and  actually  had  some  effect.  It  was 
in  connection  with  half  a  dozen  men  who  had  been 
found  guilty  of  having  plotted  to  escape  —  a  plot 
promptly  exposed  by  a  stool  pigeon.  They  had  been 
placed  in  solitary  confinement,  in  dark  cells  on  the 
fourth  floor,  above  the  sash  and  blind  factory.  There 
they  lingered  many  months  and  apparently  went  mad. 


8o  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

They  were  said  to  have  torn  up  the  floors,  damaged 
the  walls,  which  were  of  brick,  and  acted  generally 
as  maniacs.  So  it  became  necessary  to  transfer  them 
to  steel  cells  on  the  second  floor,  adjoining  those  set 
apart  for  men  condemned  to  die.  The  transfer  was 
effected  one  afternoon,  while  we  were  assembled  in 
the  upper  yard,  and  the  sight  of  these  men,  one  of 
whom  fainted  during  his  removal,  produced  a  spon- 
taneous outburst  of  indignation  that  vented  itself  in 
loud  and  angry  cries. 

The  spectacle  these  men  presented  was  awful.  Tn 
several  instances  their  beards  had  grown  to  their 
waists,  and  they  had  a  pallor  such  as  I  have  never 
seen  before  or  since.  Shortly  afterwards,  doubtless 
as  a  result  of  the  demonstration,  they  were  released 
from  solitary  confinement  and  put  once  more  to  work. 

Two  murders  were  committed  while  I  was  in  San 
Quentin.  The  first  was  that  of  a  notorious  and  much 
hated  stool  pigeon,  and  took  place  in  the  jute-mill  one 
Saturday  afternoon,  when  the  day's  work  was  over 
and  the  mill  was  nearly  empty.  The  victim  was  wash- 
ing his  hands  and  some  one,  whose  identity  was  never 
discovered,  crept  up  behind  him  and  hit  him  on  the 
head  with  a  heavy  piece  of  machinery,  causing  instant 
death. 

The  second  murder  was  committed  by  one  of  a 
gang  of  fifty  who  had  been  transferred  to  San  Quen- 
tin from  Folsom.  The  murderer  unquestionably  was 
insane  and  had  been  recognized  as  such  in  Folsom, 
where  he  had  given  much  trouble  while  working  in 
the  quarry.  At  San  Quentin  he  was  employed  on  the 
hill-moving  job,  and  one  day  he  deliberately  picked 
up  a  seven-pound  hammer,  walked  up  to  a  Mexican 
who  was  eating  his  dinner  peacefully,  and  killed  him 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT  8i 

with  two  blows.  The  murderer  was  sent  back  to 
Folsom.  The  unfortunate  Mexican  was  a  young  man 
whose  term  had  almost  expired,  and  was  to  have  been 
married  immediately  after  his  release. 

I  never  heard  of  any  other  attempts  to  murder  dur- 
ing my  stay,  and  it  will  be  noticed  that  in  neither  of 
the  cases  given  were  the  armed  guards  _  successful  in 
preventing  the  commission  of  the  crime. 

My  assignment  to  room  "  A  "  has  been  spoken  of 
as  a  stroke  of  good  luck,  since,  by  its  location  above 
the  torture  dungeons,  it  gave  me  access  to  much  in- 
formation otherwise  unobtainable.  There  are  either 
ten  or  twelve  of  these  dungeons  —  I  cannot  be  certain 
which  —  lying  on  either  side  of  a  corridor  and  under- 
ground. Each  room  has  its  door,  and  entrance  to  the 
corridor  itself  is  by  a  double  door.  No  mere  sighs 
are  audible  outside. 

The  dungeons  to  the  left  of  the  corridor  are  in 
almost  absolute  darkness,  but  those  to  the  right  get 
a  ray  or  two  of  light  that  filters  through  a  tiny  case- 
ment from  the  space  between  it  and  what  is  called 
the  "  sash  and  blind  factory ".  There  is  practically 
no  ventilation  and  the  atmosphere  is  unspeakable.  It 
was  only  after  long  delay  and  difficult  negotiations 
that  I  obtained  the  opportunity  of  inspecting  these 
cells,  and  I  then  saw  staples  and  chains,  to  which,  I 
was  informed,  several  had  been  fastened  fifty-nine 
days. 

Room  "  A  "  had  a  special  toilet  attached  to  it,  and 
from  this  could  be  heard  distinctly  at  night  the 
groans  and  cries  of  those  under  torture,  especially  if 
they  were  occupants  of  the  dungeons  that  lay  to  the 
right  of  the  corridor.  Sometimes,  when  the  victims 
were  unusually  vociferous,  their  cries  could  be  heard 


82  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

distinctly  in  the  room  itself.  I  remember,  in  particu- 
lar, the  case  of  a  Jew,  a  large,  well-developed  man, 
who  had  been  accounted  a  good  prisoner.  He  was  in 
one  of  these  dungeons  two  or  three  days,  and  his  cries 
were  pitiful.  I  made  a  point  of  interviewing  this  man 
after  his  release,  but  he  had  the  caution  of  his  race 
and  would  give  no  information.  He  repeated,  how- 
ever, constantly :  "  They  say  there  is  a  God.  There 
can  be  no  God.  No  God  would  punish  as  I  have  been 
punished." 

After  his  release  from  the  dungeon  this  man 
walked  with  great  difficulty  and  admitted  that  he 
suffered  intense  pain.  I  have  remarked  before  in  this 
article  on  the  reluctance  with  which  convicts  speak 
of  the  wrongs  suffered  at  the  hands  of  their  superiors, 
fearing  lest  what  they  have  said  may  be  reported  and 
revenged. 

The  public  should  know  exactly  what  the  strait- 
jacket  is  and  how  it  works.  It  is  a  canvas  overcoat, 
reaching  from  the  head  to  the  knees,  in  which  the 
victim  is  tightly  laced.  Inside  it  are  sleeves  so  placed 
that  the  arms  are  pinned  over  the  floating  ribs.  If, 
through  carelessness  or  vindictiveness  on  the  part  of 
the  officer  administering  the  punishment,  the  jacket 
is  laced  too  closely,  or  if  the  confinement  is  continued 
any  great  length  of  time,  permanent  deformity,  paral- 
ysis or  serious  internal  derangement  will  result.  The 
natural  excretions  of  the  body  are  much  affected  and 
the  circulation  of  the  blood  is  impeded,  which,  as  any 
doctor  will  tell  you,  causes  great  anguish  and  often 
excruciating  pains  in  the  head.  In  Folsom  not  long 
ago  a  prisoner  died  after  he  had  been  in  the  jacket 
half  an  hour. 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT 83_ 

Prior  to  my  time  a  law  had  been  passed  requiring 
that  no  man  should  be  in  the  jacket  for  more  than 
six  hours  at  a  stretch,  and  it  was,  therefore,  the  cus- 
tom of  the  authorities  to  take  a  man  out  for  a  few 
minutes  every  six  hours,  give  him  a  breathing  spell 
and  lace  him  up  again.  According  to  all  the  testi- 
mony of  various  prisoners  whom  I  cross-examined 
on  this  question  this  intermittent  punishment  was 
more  painful  than  the  old  plan. 

It  is  asserted  that  this  form  of  torture  is  no  longer 
in  use  at  San  Quentin,  but  in  April,  1908,  I  received 
the  following  telegram:  "  Strait- jacket  cruelties 
still  exist  at  San  Quentin.  Man  named  Rozales  re- 
cently subjected  to  torture  for  ninety-nine  hours. 
Great  suffering  occasioned."  In  my  time  it  was  the 
common  form  of  punishment,  and  among  my  docu- 
ments I  have  the  written  statement  of  a  reliable  re- 
corder that,  from  the  fall  of  1902  to  that  of  1906,  the 
"  jacket  was  in  constant  use ;  scarcely  a  day  without 
two  or  three  victims,  and  more  often  six  or  eight." 
In  any  event  I  am  confident  that  so  long  as  the  old 
conditions  prevail,  so  long  as  we  have  on  the  one 
hand  convicts  absolutely  helpless,  and  on  the  other 
hand  untrained  and  irresponsible  men  with  those  con- 
victs at  their  mercy,  no  material  improvement  can  be 
looked  for.  If  public  opinion  drives  one  form  of 
barbarity  out  another  will  immediately  take  its  place. 
In  Folsom,  for  example,  they  have  not  used  the  strait- 
jacket  lately,  but  have  employed  in  its  stead  the  tor- 
ture of  stringing  men  up  with  their  hands  so  tied 
behind  their  backs  that  the  entire  weight  of  the  body 
falls  on  the  arms.  From  Folsom  convicts  transferred 
to  San  Quentin  I  heard  some  horrible  stories. 

After  serving  nearly  a  year  in  the  jute-mill  I  was 
put  in  the  laundry,  being  employed  in  the  drying  de- 


84  CRIME  AND  CRIiMlNALS 

partment,  where  I  served  the  balance  of  my  term. 
From  forty  to  fifty  of  us  worked  there,  and  it  is  gen- 
erally regarded  as  more  desirable  than  the  mill. 
Many  of  the  workers  in  the  latter  suffered  greatly 
from  sore  eyes,  due  to  the  dust,  and  these  looked 
eagerly  for  a  chance  of  getting  the  cleaner  occupa- 
tion of  the  laundry.  In  the  matter  of  personal  clean- 
liness also  there  was  a  great  advantage,  as  the  laundry 
men  had  a  regular  bath  once  a  week,  whereas  such 
arrangements  as  were  made  for  the  workers  in  the 
jute-mill  were,  to  say  the  least,  primitive,  if  not  dis- 
graceful. There  I  have  stood,  one  of  a  line  of  from 
200  to  300  naked  men,  in  an  open  shed  in  the  yard 
adjoining  the  mill,  waiting  my  turn  to  stand  under 
the  pipe  which  furnishes  the  bath.  This  pipe  is  some 
thirty  feet  in  length  and  is  so  perforated  as  to  give 
one  a  douche.  From  ten  to  fifteen  men  can  stand 
under  it  at  one  time. 

The  state  supplies  prisoners  with  a  cheap  soap 
manufactured  in  connection  with  the  laundry,  but 
gives  neither  towels,  combs  nor  brushes  of  any  de- 
scription. The  man  who  has  the  money  can  purchase 
these  luxuries  once  in  every  three  months  through 
the  commissary  department ;  the  man  who  has  no 
money  must  go  without  or  borrow.  My  own  hair 
brushes  were  shared  with  some  twenty  of  my  room- 
mates, but  such  partnership  in  towels  was  an  im- 
possibility and  at  the  exceedingly  public  bath  it  was 
a  common  thing  to  see  prisoners  drying  themselves 
with  barley  sacks  taken  from  the  mill.  Here,  as  else- 
where in  prison  life,  the  arrangements  are  hardly  such 
as   make    for  a  higlier   and   more   decent  civilization. 

The  maladies  most  common  in  San  Quentin  were 
stomach  trouble,  which  I  attributed  largely  to  the 
constant  bean  diet,  tuberculosis  —  to  prevent  infection 


•     SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT  85 

from  which  no  precautions  whatever  were  taken  — 
and  rheumatism.  These  two  latter,  in  my  judgment, 
can  be  traced  largely  to  the  insufficient  accommoda- 
tions of  the  laundry.  It  has  a  small  interior  drying 
room,  but  this  is  taxed  to  the  utmost  in  caring  for 
the  belongings  of  the  officers,  guards,  their  wives  and 
families,  which  must  be  attended  to  at  all  hazards. 
The  prisoners'  clothes  are  dried  almost  entirely  in  the 
open  air,  which  meant  that  when  rainy  .weather  set 
in  they  were  not  dried  at  all.  I  have  seen  them  re- 
turned often  to  the  cells  as  wet  as  when  they  came 
from  the  wringer.  I  know  that  unfortunately  hy- 
gienic discussions  lack  that  dramatic  interest  which 
seems  to  be  necessary  to  catch  the  attention  of  the 
public,  but  I  have  a  strong  opinion  that  the  business 
of  the  state  should  be  to  see  that  when  a  convict  is 
restored  to  society  it  shall  be  under  conditions  that 
give  him  at  least  a  fair  chance  of  becoming  a  useful 
member  of  the  community.  As  it  is,  the  fate  of  the 
discharged  convict,  without  money  or  friends,  and  a 
conspicuous  mark  for  detectives  who  are  only  too 
anxious  to  gain  money  and  promotion  by  running 
him  once  more  into  jail,  is  desperate  enough.  The 
added  fact  that  the  authorities  have  been  doing  their 
best  during  his  incarceration  to  undermine  his  con- 
stitution and  cripple  him  with  disease  adds  materially 
to  the  shame  of  the  situation.  In  the  course  of  my 
own  agitation  for  the  indeterminate  sentence  and  the 
securing  of  employment  for  discharged  convicts  I 
have  accumulated  a  very  considerable  literature,  and 
I  can  find  no  one  who  has  expressed  my  own  views 
on  this  question  better  than  a  noted  convict  who  nar- 
rowly escaped  death  on  the  gallows,  but  is  now  a 
free  man,  his  innocence  of  the  murder  with  which  he 
was  charged  having  been  finally  established.     In  a 


86  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

long  letter  to  me  on  what  he  styles  "  The  Court  of 
Rehabilitation "  this  man  remarks :  "  Has  not  the 
state,  so  clear  in  defining  the  duties  of  the  individual 
to  itself,  failed  in  its  duties  to  the  individual  ?  "  I 
think  so. 

My  work  in  the  laundry,  while  sufficient  to  keep  nie 
busy,  was  not  unduly  hard,  and  it  may  be  said  in 
general  that  it  is  not  the  laboriousness  of  the  tasks 
set,  but  the  galling  conditions  that  accompany  them 
and  the  constant  dread  of  unmerited  punishment, 
which  makes  life  hideous  in  San  Quentin.  My  fellow- 
prisoners  and  I  worked  harmoniously,  and  I  should 
remember  little  of  the  days  I  spent  in  the  laundry 
but  for  the  fact  that  there  the  intrinsic  horrors  of 
capital  punishment  were  brought  home  to  me  as  they 
had  not  been  brought  before.  Six  executions  took 
place  while  I  was  in  the  prison,  and  on  each  occasion 
we  were  locked  in  our  cells  or  in  the  several  work- 
shops. In  the  jute-mill  I  grew  keenly  conscious  of 
the  view  the  convict  takes  of  the  much-mooted  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  or  no  the  state  itself  has  the  right 
to  take  life.  On  each  occasion  I  found  the  sentiment 
of  the  mill  practically  unanimous,  the  whispered 
comments  while  the  culminating  tragedy  was  in 
course  of  enactment  invariably  being  that  the  state 
was  committing  another  murder.  But  in  the  jute-mill 
we  had  no  physical  evidence  of  the  deed  that  was 
being  done,  whereas  in  the  laundry  the  thud  of  the 
falling  body  was  distinctly  audible,  the  entire  building 
being  jarred.  Such  experiences  register  impressions 
that  time  does  not  efface. 

At  the  expiration  of  fourteen  months  I  was  moved 
from  room  "  A  "  to  room  "  7  ",  and  there  I  passed  the 
remainder  of  my  term.  It  was  the  largest  room  in 
the  prison,  and  from  fifty  to  sixty  of  us  shared  it,  but 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT 87 

since  then  it  has  been  made  to  accommodate  over  two 
hundred,  the  prison  having  been  greatly  overcrowded. 
My  roommates  were  much  of  the  same  character  as 
those  in  my  previous  quarters,  and,  my  reputation  as 
a  reader  having  become  established,  I  had  a  large 
and  most  attentive  audience  every  evening.  I  need 
not  say  that  this  occupation  gave  me  the  most  intense 
relief  and  I  fell  into  the  habit  of  looking  forward 
eagerly  to  the  coming  of  the  night.  The  matter  I 
read  aloud  was  from  the  best  periodicals,  such  as  the 
Literary  Digest,  the  Review  of  Reviews,  the  Scientific 
American,  and  similar  publications,  and  I  soon  dis- 
covered that  it  was  a  delusion  to  suppose  that  the 
ordinary  man  cannot  appreciate  good  literature.  The 
real  trouble,  I  think,  is  that  he  has  not  the  knowledge 
necessary  to  make  judicious  selections.  So  far  as  I 
know  only  one  other  prisoner  had  tried  the  experi- 
ment of  reading  aloud  to  his  companions,  and  he  had 
done  it  but  occasionally.  This  was  "  Buck  "  English, 
in  for  life  for  highway  robbery.  He  was  a  bright 
fellow  and  most  popular.  I  may  add  that,  when  we 
ourselves  were  through  with  the  magazines,  we  in- 
variably sent  them  to  the  cells  in  which  those  con- 
demned to  death  were  incarcerated. 

Although  room  "  7 "  was  orderly  enough  it  had 
one  bad  feature,  a  group  of  degenerates  having  their 
bunks  in  one  corner.  The  San  Francisco  hoodlum 
gangs,  composed  of  young  fellows,  have  a  bad  name 
in  this  respect,  but  one  of  the  culprits  in  this  room 
was  an  old,  gray-haired  man,  who  was  serving  his 
fourth  term  for  sexual  crime.  He  would  follow  cer- 
tain boys  about  with  all  the  abandon  of  an  impas- 
sioned lover,  and  was  certainly  insane  on  that  par- 
ticular subject.  It  is  one  of  the  most  alarming  vices 
that  prison  life  engenders  and  the  large  and  rambling 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


jute-mill,  with  its  dark  corners  and  piles  of  material, 
lends  itself  readily  to  such  acts.  It  is  impossible  to 
exaggerate  the  cynicism  with  which  experienced 
guards  speak  of  this  subject,  treating  it  as  a  matter 
of  course,  and  quite  impossible  for  me  to  reproduce 
here  the  facts  that  came  to  my  knowledge.  They  in- 
clude the  irremediable  physical  ruin  of  the  merest 
lads,  who  become  infected  with  the  disease  that  is 
rampant  among  convicts. 

In  this  room  there  were  even  more  old  men  than  I 
had  found  in  room  "  A  ",  several  being  over  eighty 
years  of  age.  They  were  full  of  information  as  to 
the  past  history  of  the  prison,  and  from  them  I  ob- 
tained a  great  insight  into  the  life  of  the  habitual 
criminal,  the  causes  that  make  him  what  he  is,  and 
his  view  of  existing  social  institutions,  which  is  by 
no  means  flattering.  As  I  have  said  before,  all  my 
experience  has  convinced  me  that  the  ordinary  con- 
vict is  far  more  sinned  against  than  sinning,  and  I 
may  add  that,  having  for  long  months  watched  the 
conduct  of  convicts  on  the  one  hand  and  guards  and 
detectives  on  the  other,  I  am  of  the  fixed  opinion  that 
in  many,  very  many  cases,  they  might  change  roles 
with  a  closer  approximation  to  justice  and  advantage 
to  the  state. 

The  room  tender  was  named  Frank  Klessner.  He 
had  received  a  life  sentence  for  killing  a  man  who 
trespassed  on  his  ranch  in  Tuolumne  county,  and  had 
been  in  San  Quentin  some  twenty-five  years  when  I 
made  his  acquaintance.  Throughout  that  period  he 
had  proved  himself  a  model  prisoner,  and  he  and  I 
became  great  friends.  In  fact,  I  bequeathed  him  my 
precious  chair  when  I  left  the  prison.  This  man  met 
with  a  most  unhappy  end.  Shortly  after  I  left  San 
Quentin  he  was  released  on  parole  and  returned  to 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT 


the  ranch  that  had  been  the  scene  of  all  his  trouble. 
The  house  was  occupied  by  his  daughter,  of  whom  he 
had  spoken  to  me  often,  and  her  husband,  for  she 
had  grown  up  while  her  father  lay  in  prison.  Since 
the  ranch  still  belonged  to  Klessner  they  had  to  give 
him  shelter,  but  it  seems  that  his  welcome  was  not  a 
hearty  one,  and  doubtless  he  had  become  old  and 
cranky.  At  any  rate  they  applied  to  the  authorities 
for  his  return  to  prison,  and  just  before  the  arrival 
of  Capt.  Randolph,  who  had  been  sent  to  fetch  him, 
Klessner  committed  suicide  by  severing  the  arteries 
of  his  wrist,  preferring  death  to  reincarceration  and 
torture. 

At  length  the  day  of  my  own  release  arrived.  I 
made  my  adieux  and  left  as  quietly  as  possible,  trying 
hard,  although  with  only  partial  success,  to  avoid  the 
reporters  who  had  gathered  on  my  trail,  and  declining 
to  be  interviewed. 

In  this  article  I  have  endeavored  to  give,  as  simply 
as  possible,  an  account  of  my  own  experiences,  leav- 
ing the  reader  to  draw  his,  or  her,  own  conclusions. 
What  are  my  own  conclusions?  What  are  likely  to 
be  the  conclusions  of  an  educated  man  who,  brought 
face  to  face  with  such  a  mass  of  human  stupidity,  has 
been  forced  to  think?  If  a  more  definite  answer  than 
this  is  required  I  can  only  say  that  it  is  to  be  found 
in  the  program  and  literature  of  the  Prison  Reform 
League,  to  which  I  am  devoting  much  of  my  energy. 

If  you  tell  me  that  such  conditions  as  I  have  ex- 
perienced and  described  have  existed  for  generations 
and  cannot  be  materially  altered,  I  refer  you  to  the 
account  given  by  H.  Norman,  one  of  the  world's  best 
known  writers,  of  the  principal  Japanese  prison  tit 
Tokyo.  He  tells  us  that  its  inmates  are  put  to  the 
highest  class  of  industrial  work  of  which  they  are 


90  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

capable,  and  adds :  "  If  the  prisoner  can  make  artis- 
tic inlaid  metal  work,  well  and  good;  if  not,  perhaps 
he  can  carve  wood  or  make  pottery ;  if  not  these,  then 
he  can  make  fans  or  umbrellas  or  basket  work ;  ?f 
he  is  not  up  to  any  of  these,  then  he  can  make  paper, 
or  set  type,  or  cast  brass,  or  do  carpentering;  if  the 
limit  is  still  too  high  for  him,  down  he  goes  to  the 
rice  mill,  and  see-saws  all  day  long  upon  a  balanced 
beam,  first  raising  the  stone-weighted  end,  and  then 
letting  it  down  with  a  great  flop  into  a  mortar  of 
rice.  But  if  he  cannot  accomplish  even  this  poor  task 
regularly,  he  is  given  a  hammer  and  left  to  break 
stones  under  a  shed  with  the  twenty-nine  other  men 
out  of  2000  who  could  not  learn  anything  else."  He 
also  tells  us  that  he  found  only  one  punishment  ceil 
in  the  prison,  which,  as  he  was  informed  by  the 
official,  had  not  been  used  for  a  month.  Are  we 
A.mericans  content  to  lag  so  far  behind  Japan  ? 

I  am  well  aware  that  many  will  suspect  me  of  having 
viewed  this  entire  question  through  jaundiced  eyes, 
being  embittered  by  my  own  experiences.  For  the 
benefit  of  such  I  append  the  report  of  the  special  com- 
mittee of  fifteen  appointed  by  the  California  legisla- 
ture in  1907  to  report  on  conditions  in  San  Quentiu. 
It  was  published  in  the  Assembly  Daily  Journal  of 
March  8,  1907,  and  is  as  follows: 

"  The  crimes  practiced  in  this  institution,  in  our 
opinion,  are  a  blot  upon  the  fair  name  of  California. 
In  the  first  place,  the  institution  is  vastly  over- 
crowded. All  congregate  together,  with  no  privacy 
whatever.  The  boys  of  tender  age  who  should  never 
have  seen  the  inside  of  these  gloomy  walls,  find  them- 
selves under  the  influence  of  aged  and  hardened  crim- 
inals, and  if  there  is  a  spark  of  reformation  in  this 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT  91 

class  of  criminals  it  certainly  will  soon  leave  them. 
The  cells  are  dark  and  gloomy,  containing  from  thir- 
teen to  fifteen  or  more  inmates  to  a  cell.  We  find 
that  they  are  locked  in  their  apartments  at  four  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon,  with  no  air  except  what  little  finds 
its  way  through  the  small  gratings  of  the  iron  door. 
This,  we  believe,  is  not  only  injurious  to  the  physical 
body,  but  is  degrading  mentally.  The  prison  directors 
claim  that  they  are  powerless  to  change  this  condi- 
tion and  if  the  bill,  which  has  been  introduced, 
should  pass,  requiring  the  segregating  of  prisoners, 
that  they  would  be  helpless  and  could  not  carry  out 
its  requirements ;  but,  after  going  over  the  situation 
carefully,  we  cannot  see  why  the  large  brick  building 
known  as  the  old  furniture  factory  cannot  be  equipped 
with  cells  for  the  use  of  the  younger  and  less  hard- 
ened criminals.  They  may  say  that  this  is  an  unsafe 
building,  but  it  has  passed  through  the  earthquake 
unharmed.  It  stands  within  the  prison  walls,  and  we 
are  unable  to  see  in  what  degree  it  is  unsafe.  This 
could  be  arranged  with  but  very  little  cost,  and  would 
no  doubt  save  a  large  number  of  young  men  from 
coming  under  the  influence  of  the  more  hardened  type 
of  criminals.  While  it  is  true  that  they  must  come 
in  contact  more  or  less  during  working  hours  in  the 
jute-mill,  yet  while  they  are  at  work  there  is  very  lit- 
tle opportunity  for  them  to  converse,  and  if  they  are 
separated  at  the  close  of  the  day  they  would  scarcely 
know  with  whom  they  had  met  during  the  day, 

"  There  seems  to  be  complaint  regarding  food,  and 
some  of  the  inmates  informed  us  that  they  not  only 
had  an  insufficient  amount,  but  that  the  food  was  poor 
in  quality.  This,  if  true,  ought  not  to  be.  While  we 
believe  that  the  food  should  be  plain,  yet  it  should  be 


92  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

nourishing  and  in  abundance,  and  we  believe  that  if 
our  state  is  paying  for  the  very  best  quaHty  that  can 
be  had  in  the  market,  the  board  should  see  that  it  is 
supplied.  At  the  session  of  IQ05  there  were  $310,000 
appropriated  for  new  buildings.  Before  this  nesv 
building  can  be  erected  it  is  necessary  that  a  hill  be 
graded  off.  They  are  now  removing  this  hill,  but, 
judging  from  the  work  done  in  the  past  two  years, 
it  will  be  a  number  of  years  before  a  start  can  be 
made  upon  the  new  building,  and  in  the  judgment  of 
your  committee  altogether  too  much  money  is  being 
expended  in  the  work  of  grading  the  hill.  Below  are 
the  names  and  number  of  people  employed  upon  this 
work: 

STATE  BOARD  OF  PRISON  DIRECTORS' 
SALARIES 

For  January,   payable  out  of  the  appropriation   for 
additional  cells,  State  Prison,  San  Quentin. 

San  Folsom 

Quentin 
W.   R.   Eckart,   consulting  engineer, 

January    salary    ?150.00  $150.00 

N.  A.   Eckart,   assistant  engineer, 

January    salary    125.00  125.00 

J.  H.  Wilklns,  superintendent  of  construction, 

January    salary    100.00  100.00 

H.  Harrison,  locomotive  engineer, 

January    salary    120.00 

P.  S.  Brown,  assistant  foreman 

January   salary    75.00 

O.  Engle,  sub-foreman, 

January    salary    70.00 

R.  Jones,  sub-foreman, 

January    salary    70.00 

Chas.  Redding,  sub-foreman, 

January    salary    70.00 

P.  H.  McGrath,  tecretary  prison  directors, 

One-fourth    January   salary '      37.50  37.50 

F.  R.  Collins,  draftsman, 

1211^    liours  at  70c 85.05 

Totals    $902.55  $412.50 


SAN  QUENTIN  AS  I  KNEW  IT 93 

"Two  extra  guards  $130  per  month,  making  a 
total  of  $1225  per  month.  We  are  also  informed  that 
one-half  of  Mr.  Oliver's  salary  is  paid  from  this  fund. 
Leaving  this  item  out,  the  total  seems  to  be  $1225 
per  month,  or  a  total  of  $14,700  per  year.  We  think 
that  this  is  altogether  too  much  to  be  paid  for  this 
class  of  work,  as  you  can  readily  see  that  in  three 
or  four  years  it  amounts  to  quite  a  large  sum.  The 
question  we  ask  is,  would  not  one  good  foreman  :it 
about  $100  per  month  be  all  that  is  needed  to  accom- 
plish the  same  results  ?  " 

Every  one  who  has  the  slightest  acquaintance  with 
public  life  knows  how  cautious  the  reports  of  such 
investigating  committees  invariably  are,  and  how  lit- 
tle they  see  of  the  real  and  graver  abuses  that  lie 
below  the  surface.  In  connection  with  the  commit- 
tee's criticism  of  the  expense  attending  work  at  San 
Quentin  I  may  add  that,  under  a  former  warden,  the 
legislature  appropriated  $5000  for  the  erection  of  a 
shelter  shed  at  San  Quentin,  which  was  located  in 
the  upper  yard.  It  still  stands  there,  and  those  com- 
petent to  form  an  estimate  have'  told  me  that  it  did 
not  cost  $500,  let  alone  $5000. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SAN  QUENTIN,  AS  A  FEMALE  PRISONER  KNEW  IT 

The  female  occupants  of  our  penitentiaries  are  com- 
paratively few  in  number,  and.  although  much  is  being 
written  nowadays  concerning  the  treatment  meted  out 
to  male  convicts,  that  to  which  women  are  subjected 
has  excited  little  attention.  The  Los  Angeles  branch 
of  the  Prison  Reform  League  is  the  possessor  of  the 
only  detailed  and  quite  recent  account  of  life  in  the 
female  department  at  San  Quentin  that,  so  far  as  can 
be  ascertained,  is  in  existence,  and  this  chapter  is  given 
as  a  fitting  pendant  to  Col.  Griffith's  story.  Like  his, 
the  account  discloses  conditions  that  call  for  prompt 
and  unflinching  investigation.  We  have  only  to  add 
that  the  league  has  corroborated  this  account  by  the 
testimony  of  three  past  and  two  present  inmates,  and 
to  remind  our  readers  that  it  is  always  among  the  most 
difficult  of  tasks  to  obtain  and  verify  such  informa- 
tion. For  obvious  reasons  the  name  of  the  narrator 
is  withheld  and  every  care  possible  has  been  taken  to 
shield  from  publicity  those  to  whom  reference  is  made. 
Incidentally  it  may  be  remarked  that  after  the  obtain- 
ing and  verification  of  this  account  the  prison  authori- 
ties were  warned  that  a  full  exposure  would  follow 
refusal  ta  bring  about  instant  reform.  We  summarize 
in  part  and  quote  extensively.  It  will  be  seen  that  the 
woman  in  question  is  far  from  being  uneducated.  She 
was  an  inmate  of  San  Quentin  several  years. 

After  premising  that,  in  the  colloquial  phrase  of  the 
day,  the  "  lid  to  the  women's  department  in  San  Quen- 
tin has  been  on  tight  for  many  years,  and  dire  indeed 


A  FEMALE  PRISONER  AT  SAN  QUENTIN       95 

are  the  threats  made  against  the  one  rash  enough  to 
remove  it",  the  writer  states  that  "  it  is  utterly  impos- 
sible to  tell  a//  the  truth"  —  the  reason  for  which 
remark  the  reader  will  have  no  difficulty  in  compre- 
hending as  he  follows  the  account,  which  contains  at 
the  outset  the  following  description  of  the  women's 
quarters : ' 

"  A  door  opens  from  an  office,  and  you  enter  a  place 
that  looks  for  all  the  world  like  a  bear  pit,  with  its 
thick,  gray  walls  on  four  sides  and  cement  floor.  This 
pit,  by  actual  measurement,  is  60  ft.  by  90.  Out  of 
this  oblong  a  building,  40  by  20,  is  taken ;  so,  if  you 
are  good  at  figures,  you  can  see  just  what  room  is 
allowed  for  clothes-lines,  exercise,  garbage  cans,  etc. 
The  feet  of  these  poor  women  never  touch  the  ground 
of  mother  earth,  and  all  exercise,  which  is  optional, 
has  to  be  taken  on  this  cement  floor.  Midway  in  the 
place  is  the  hopper,  and  on  the  other  side  hang  the 
thirty  or  forty  buckets  used  in  the  cells  from  4  p.m. 
to  7  a.m.  Opposite  stand  the  immense  garbage  cans, 
and,  as  they  have  no  covers,  the  aroma  that  greets  the 
olfactory  nerves  is  indeed  overwhelming.  No  benches, 
whereon  one  might  sit  to  get  the  sun,  are  in  the  pen, 
and  the  matron  will  not  allow  the  women  to  carry  out 
a  chair ;  so,  if  one  must  have  a  little  sun  and  air,  the 
only  alternative  is  to  squat  on  the  stairs  leading  out 
of  the  yard  to  the  cells,  or  sit  on  the  cement  flat  and 
let  one's  feet  hang  down.  Either  plan  is  conducive 
to  sorry  comfort,  helping  the  rheumatism  and  stiffness 
of  joints  so  much  in  evidence  among  the  inmates. 
'  Why  cannot  the  warden  allow  a  few  benches  to  be 
placed  along  the  gray  walls?'  was  asked  many  times, 
and  the  reply  was  that  seats  would  injure  the  cement! 
Never  mind  the  women.     They  are  here  for  punish- 


96  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

ment ;  and  I  can  add  feelingly  that  no  stone  was  left 
untrrned  to  see  that  they  got  all  that  was  coming 
to  them. 

"  The  hopper  referred  to  deserves  a  special  article. 
It  is  situated  in  the  laundry  room,  and  is  an  old- 
fashioned  thing,  about  eighteen  inches  in  diameter. 
Into  this  must  go  the  contents  of  the  buckets  I  have 
mentioned,  and  as  this  deposit  must  take  place  as  soon 
as  the  women  are  dressed,  the  scene  that  follows  beg- 
gars description.  There  were  two  large  holes  in  the 
floor  of  this  laundry,  and  as  the  fiUh  from  human 
bodies  accumulated  and  overflowed  the  hopper,  a 
stream  ran  into  these  holes  and  this  filth  flowed,  under 
the  dining-room  and  kitchen,  out  under  an  office,  emit- 
ting a  stench  that  finally  attracted  the  attention  of 
some  officer.  The  matter  was  then  remedied  slightly, 
but  the  vile  conditions  of  the  hopper  remain. 

"  The  pen,  or  pit,  is  also  the  playground  at  night  of 
an  ever  increasing  army  of  the  most  gigantic  rats,  and 
the  stairs,  platforms  and  yard  bore  unmistakable  evi- 
dence of  their  nocturnal  ramblings.  As  the  women 
emerged  from  their  cells  in  the  early  morning  they 
reminded  one  of  cave~dwel!ers,  and  the  agility  which 
had  to  be  used  to  clear  away  these  remembrances  of 
his  ratship  was  something  long  to  be  remembered. 
They  also  invaded  the  kitchen  and  pantry,  and  mute 
evidence  of  their  presence  was  often  seen  in  the  beans, 
rice  and  other  foods,  if  the  cook  was  not  careful.  Try, 
if  you  can,  to  imagine  the  air  in  such  a  place.  Small 
wonder  that  the  health  gives  way,  and  that  tubercu- 
losis, rheumatism,  sore  throat  and  kindred  diseases  are 
prevalent;  while  the  only  remedies  are  a  handful  of 
calomel  at  night,  and  a  dose  of  salts  in  the  morning, 
ladled  out  by  the  wholesale  to  the  miserable  creatures. 


A  FEMALE  PRISONER  AT  SAN  QUENTIN       97 

"  Just  outside  the  walls,  we  knew,  were  the  blue 
waters  of  the  bay,  but  never  a  glimpse  for  us.  Just 
outside  the  fresh  air  and  the  bright  flowers,  but  not 
for  us.  Just  outside  the  green  of  the  hills  and  God's 
ground  to  walk  on,  but  only  cement  for  our  tired  feet. 
Oh!  Exquisite  torture!  Can  it  ever  be  forgotten? 
How  I  envied  the  men  who  could  go  out  on  the  ground 
and  spade !  How  much  would  I  have  given  for  a  gar- 
den; a  little  plot  to  work  in,  just  to  feel  the  ground! 
Is  it  not  too  hard  to  be  deprived  of  everything  as  well 
as  liberty?  The  awfulness  of  it  cannot  be  imagined 
unless  you  have  experienced  it.  With  King  Lear  one 
may  well  exclaim  :     '  This  way  madness  lies.'  " 

After  reiterating  that  she  has  in  no  way  exaggerated 
the  picture  the  writer  refers  to  the  "  brutal,  ignorant 
and  petty  tyrants  who  hold  their  places  by  virtue  of 
a  political  pull,"  and  remarks  that  "  many  of  the  offi- 
cers have  been  feeding  at  this  public  trough  so  many 
years  that  all  finer  feelings,  if  they  ever  had  any,  have 
become  calloused  and  numbed  from  gazing  on  human 
suffering." 

The  windows  of  the  cells  open  on  this  pen,  and  those 
afflicted  with  catarrh  or  tuberculosis  expectorate  freely 
from  them  without  rebuke.  "  Let  us  now  ascend  the 
stairs  on  the  east.  Here  we  enter  a  hall  running  north 
and  south,  some  fifty  feet,  or  more,  in  length.  From 
this  open  seven  cells,  7  by  10  feet,  in  which  two,  some- 
times three,  women  are  crowded.  Old-fashioned 
wooden  bedsteads,  with  boards  for  springs,  are  cov- 
ered with  hard  straw  ticks  and  heavy  gray  blankets. 
For  a  pillow  you  must  roll  up  your  coat,  or  collect 
enough  cotton  flannel  pieces  from  the  floor  of  the  sew- 
ing-room to  form  one.  .  .  .  From  the  hall  just 
mentioned  another  hall  opens,  running  east  and  west. 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


the  length  of  three  slightly  larger  rooms.  These  rooms 
face  north  and  never  get  a  ray  of  sunlight,  and  one  is 
called  the  '  hospital.'  Its  walls  are  always  wet,  and 
green  moss  forms,  of  course.  One  woman  has  lived 
in  one  of  these  damp,  cold  places  twenty-three  years.' 
She  would  be  paroled  if  anyone  would  give  her  a 
home.  Why  do  not  these  club-women,  and  others,  try 
to  do  something  for  the  women,  even  if  they  are 
accused  of  murder,  when  men  who  are  guilty  of  the 
same  crime  are  being  paroled  and  assisted  by  women 
every  month  ? 

"  Along  this  short  hall  are  five  windows,  opening  on 
the  men's  yard,  where  are  flowers  and  fountains.  That 
is,  they  would  open  if  they  had  not  been  sealed  down 
tight  and  painted  over,  so  that  the  poor  wretches  can 
not  see.  Some  inquisitive  daughter  of  Eve  long  ago 
scratched  away  the  paint  on  three  of  the  panes,  in 
places  about  the  size  of  a  dime,  and  here  you  will  see 
those  who  are  tall  enough,  standing,  with  eyes  glued 
to  these  little  peep-holes,  feasting  their  gaze  on  the 
flowers  afar  off.  From  this  hall  we  enter  the  dining- 
room,  containing  five  windows,  also  hermetically  sealed 
and  painted  over,  a  pine  table  and  a  stove,  and  a  bare 
floor.  For  years  the  stove  refused  to  draw,  and  I  have 
seen  the  smoke  pouring  from  it  in  such  clouds  that  the 
only  refuge  for  smarting  eyes  and  throats  was  out- 
side, no  matter  how  hard  the  rain  might  be  pouring 
or  the  wind  raging. 

"  The  sewing-room  comes  next,  and  here  stand  two 
old,  broken-down,  worn  sewing  machines  that  are,  at 
least,  fifty  years  old.  The  running  of  these  old  sol- 
diers is  enough  to  kill  the  ordinary  woman.  This  room 
also  has  windows  sealed  as  are  the  rest,  and  any  ven- 


A  FEMALE  PRISONER  AT  SAN  QUENTIN       99 

tilation  must  be  by  the  door,  which,  on  cold  and  rainy 
days,  cannot  be  opened.  The  foul  air  of  these  two 
rooms  is  something  awful. 

"  From  the  sewing-room  opens  another  long  hall, 
with  eight  cells  opening  to  the  east.  This  hall  is  some 
sixty  feet  long,  and  has  little  windows  high  up  that 
originally  were  meant  for  ventilation;  but  these,  like 
the  others,  are  sealed.  At  the  north  end  of  this  hall  is 
the  one  toilet.  Beyond  this  is  a  bathroom,  which  is 
kept  locked,  and  has  the  sole  faucet  from  which  water 
can  be  obtained.  All  are  compelled  to  go  down  a  long 
flight  of  stairs  across  the  yard  to  the  laundry  for 
water,  no  matter  how  hard  the  storm  or  wet  the  steps 
and  yard  may  be.  As  the  state  provides  coverings  for 
neither  head  nor  body  one  is  soon  wet  through. 

"  When  the  door  of  the  sewing-room  is  closed  at 
night  no  possible  breath  of  air  can  enter  closet,  halls 
or  rooms,  and  the  smell  can  be  likened  to  nothing  less 
than  that  of  a  charnel-house,  for  all  colors  and  classes 
are  penned  in  together.  White  women  who  are 
cleanly  and  neat  are  next  to  some  vile-smelling 
negress,  Chinese  or  Mexican  woman.  The  only  place 
where  even  a  semblance  of  heat  can  be  found  is  at  the 
old,  smoky  stove,  whose  grate  is  held  in  place  by  an 
oyster  can,  and  whose  missing  leg  is  supplied  by  a 
broken  flatiron.  There  is  no  heat  whatever  in  the 
room,  and  after  4  p.m.  one  must  either  go  to  bed  or 
sit  on  the  hard  bed  and  suffer.  All  lights  go  out  at 
9  p.m.,  and  if  one  is  taken  ill  during  the  night  one 
must  grope  and  stumble  around  as  best  one  may." 

The  writer  admits  that  the  work  is  not  hard,  the 
most  laborious  part  of  it  being  the  carrying  water  up 
and  down  stairs  in  all  weathers,  as  the  halls  and  rooms 
are  scrubbed  twice  a  week.    From  eighty  to  a  hundred 


100  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

suits  of  underwear  have  to  be  made  each  week  for  the 
use  of  the  men,  but  this,  Hke  the  other  work,  is  divided 
up.  One  woman  acts  as  cook  and  there  is  a  dining- 
room  girl,  whose  duties  are  entirely  below  stairs. 
Nothing  is  taught  that  can  be  of  the  slightest  use  to 
the  prisoner  after  her  discharge,  the  accomplishments 
to  be  learned  being  cigarette  smoking  —  each  woman 
receiving  every  Monday  afternoon  her  sack  of  tobacco 
and  package  of  papers  —  and  other  vices.  As  to 
which  the  writer  remarks :  "  Nearly  every  woman 
there  has  voiced  the  sentiment,  not  once  but  many 
times :  '  I  shall  be  a  thousand  times  worse  a  girl  when 
I  leave  this  living  hell  than  I  ever  dreamed  I  could 
be.'  And  it  is  true,  for  the  viler,  lower  traits  are  so 
encouraged,  and  whatever  better  impulses  one  pos- 
sesses are  so  smothered  and  killed,  that  the  entire 
nature  is  changed  for  the  worse.  This  is  no  idle  state- 
ment, for  we  all  know  that  constant  fear  breeds  hate, 
and  from  hate  spring  all  the  baser  passions." 

I'he  state  supplies  each  female  prisoner  every  six 
months  with  six  yards  of  white  cotton,  six  yards  of 
tennis  flannel,  and  two  pairs  of  hose.  She  is  given 
also  two  blue  denim  dresses  and  one  heavy  blue  flan- 
nel dress,  called  a  "reception  dress".  But  it  does  not 
supply  any  underwear,  corsets,  underskirts,  garters, 
hats,  bonnets,  coats  or  overshoes,  and  the  sufferings  of 
those  who  enter  without  such  supplies  and  have  no 
money  to  buy  them  are  extreme.  For  there  is  no  heat 
in  the  cells,  and  the  thick  walls,  when  thoroughly  wet- 
ted and  chilled,  remain  so  all  winter.  "  It  would  have 
been  amusing,  were  it  not  so  pathetic,  to  see  the  straits 
to  which  the  women  were  reduced  to  find  something 
that  would  answer  for  underclothes,  and  they  picked 
up  from  the  sewing-room  floor  scraps  of  cotton  flan- 


A  FEMALE  PRISONER  AT  SAN  QUENTIN      loi 

nel  and,  by  great  ingenuity  and  much  labor,  made  gar- 
ments. These  garments,  being  most  bulky,  were  refused 
by  the  laundry,  as  they  broke  the  wringer."  In  one  of 
such  garments  the  writer  counted  two  hundred  and 
forty  pieces.  The  further  comment  is  made  that, 
although  the  state  is  supposed  to  issue  the  supplies  pre- 
viously mentioned  every  six  months,  they  are  habit- 
ually held  back.  If,  therefore,  for  example,  a  woman's 
supplies  are  due  in  April  and  she  is  to  be  released  in 
May,  she  will  be  told  that  the  supplies  have  not 
arrived,  and  will  leave  the  prison  without  getting  them. 

As  for  rules,  they  are  non-existent.  What  is  right 
today  is  wrong  tomorrow.  One  does  not  know  until, 
in  the  matron's  own  phrase,  she  "  lands  "  on  one. 

The  state  furnishes  enough  raw  material  to  furnish 
a  fairly  palatable  bill  of  fare,  if  the  cooking  were  but 
attended  to  properly,  but  no  fresh  fruit  is  ever  seen, 
and  the  dried  article  is  of  the  poorest  and  cheapest 
grade.  No  present  that  a  Good  Samaritan  could  make 
would  be  more  welcome  than  one  of  citrus  fruits. 
There  is  a  rule  prohibiting  friends  from  sending  in 
eatables,  but  it  is  broken  repeatedly,  with  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  matron.  Numerous  instances  of  favorit- 
ism in  this,  as  in  other  regards,  are  cited,  especially 
where  the  prisoners  were  able  to  do  embroidery  and 
other  fine  needlework  for  the  matron.  There  is  sup- 
posed to  be  a  stringent  rule  forbidding  making 
presents  to  or  doing  work  for  a  prison  official.  "If 
anyone  were  so  interested  as  to  investigate  he  would 
find  *  Buzzard's  Roost',  as  the  matron  designated  her 
abode,  literally  lined  with  pillows,  table  covers,  pillow 
shams  and  other  articles  too  numerous  to  mention, 
forced  from  the  women  who  hoped  by  thus  catering 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


to  her  greed  to  enjoy  some  of  the  favors  they  knew 
she  could  and  did  give  to  those  who  worked  for  her." 

There  are  practically  no  bathing  facilities,  the  bath- 
room, as  has  been  mentioned  already,  being  kept  locked 
and  no  hot  water  being  obtainable.  There  is,  indeed, 
another  bathroom,  but  it  is  used  for  storing  oil  cans 
and  other  articles. 

The  absolute  autocrat  of  this  department  was,  of 
course,  the  late  matron,  with  whose  personality  this 
narrative  deals  at  great  length.  For  the  present  it  suf- 
fices to  say  that  she  is  described  as  having  been  an 
incurable  gossip,  of  the  foulest  kind,  showing  special 
partiality  to  negresses,  and  completing  a  day's  work 
that  averaged  about  five  hours  by  leaving  the  estab- 
lishment to  itself  at  4 130  p.m.  "  After  lock-up  at  4 130 
the  den  is  left  entirely  alone,  and  the  lowest  of  the 
women  then  employ  the  time  quarreling  from  their 
windows.  If  an  enemy  is  near  them  who  is  half  way 
decent,  the  oaths,  the  vulgarity,  the  terrible  remarks 
that  only  a  degraded  woman  can  use  are  allowed  to 
be  made,  and  a  flood  of  billingsgate  is  unloosed  that 
can  be  equaled  nowhere  else  in  the  world,  I  am  sure." 
Special  reference  is  made  to  the  cook,  who  was  a 
negress,  and,  being  a  pet  with  the  matron,  had  been 
appointed  —  librarian  !  "  This  negress  had  a  particular 
antipathy  to  Mrs.  B.,  and  at  night,  her  cell  being  the 
only  one  unlocked,  would  parade  up  and  down  the 
halls,  saying  everything  a  vulgar,  depraved  mind  could 
suggest.  We  informed  the  matron,  who  frequently- 
punished  white  women  for  lesser  offenses  than,  this, 
and  the  next  night  we  were  abused  so  much  worse 
that  it  was  of  no  use  to  report  the  matter." 

When  an  application  for  parole  is  made  one  of  the 
questions  invariably  asked  is :      "  What  religious  in- 


A  FEMALE  PRISONER  AT  SAN  QUENTIN      103 

struction  or  teaching  have  you  had  in  prison  ?  "  Com- 
menting on  this  the  writer  says  that  the  San  Quentin 
chaplain  held  a  little  service  in  the  office  about  once  in 
every  three  months,  but  that  no  one  was  invited  to 
attend,  and  that  those  who  did  were  obliged  to  hear 
all  manner  of  ridicule  directed  against  him  by  the 
matron.  "  Many  a  time  after  the  California  Club 
women  or  the  Salvation  Army  lassies  had  held  their 
services  in  the  office,  the  table  would  be  rolled  back 
and  the  negro  women,  and  those  of  the  white  women 
who  were  low  enough  in  their  tastes  to  enjoy  such  a 
spectacle,  would  be  called  in  and,  while  one  would 
strum  on  a  banjo,  the  rest  would  raise  their  clothes 
and  give  a  leg  show.  The  higher  kickers  they  were 
the  better  the  matron  enjoyed  it."  At  the  same  time 
gambling  would  be  in  progress.  An  attempt  to  form 
a  bible  study  class  was  stopped.  No  books  that  could 
be  used  for  educational  purposes  were  obtainable,  and 
every  effort  toward  self-improvement  was  discouraged. 

"  For  many  years  no  women  were  allowed  to  pene- 
trate to  this  department.  Mrs.  Jean  Sinclair,  to  whom 
all  honor  is  due,  worked  ceaselessly  for  a  year  before 
she  was  allowed,  to  get  in,  and  if  she,  or  other  mem- 
bers of  the  California  Club  of  San  Francisco,  wonder 
why  her  work  did  not  seem  a  success,  I  want  to  say, 
right  here  and  now,  that  it  was  because  of  the  ridicule 
by  the  matron.  We  were  also  given  to  understand,  in 
no  uncertain  terms,  that  the  best  thing  we  could  do 
was  to  absent  ourselves  from  the  room  when  such 
meetings  were  in  progress." 

It  is  charged  that  the  abuse  of  the  white  women  by 
the  negresses  was  deliberately  encouraged,  and  that 
repeatedly,  to  the  accompaniment  of  guitars,  the 
matron  ccoild  be  seen  waltzing  with  the  big  negress 


104  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

cook,  whose  relations  with  her  were  a  constantly  dis- 
cussed and  most  revolting  scandal.  This  negress  is 
said  to  have  ruled  the  women's  department  and,  "  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  she  was  one  of  the  worst 
women  there,  by  the  matron's  own  statement,  yet  she 
had  the  most  privileges;  she  was  never  punished  or 
even  reprimanded  for  her  dreadful  statements  and 
wicked  talk;  she  was  given  the  place  of  cook,  which 
carries  with  it  special  privileges,  such  as  warmth, 
baths,  good  food,  being  unlocked  at  night,  and  many 
other  favors.  The  white  women  were  at  her  mercy." 
This  is  the  woman  whom  the  matron,  as  mentioned 
previously,  appointed  librarian. 

"  I  saw  a  colored  girl,  Trixie,  throw  bread,  beans, 
plates  and  dishes  at  Bertha  B.,  a  white  woman,  across 
the  table  at  supper,  for  some  fancied  wrong.  The 
fusillade  of  dishes  very  narrowly  missed  Mrs.  B.,  and 
one  of  them  cut  a  deep  gash,  from  which  the  blood 
flowed  freely,  in  Bertha's  arm,  which  was  defending 
her  face.  Was  Trixie  punished?  What  a  foolish 
question !  She  was  colored.  A  few  days  later  a  poor, 
half-demented  woman,  Etta  F.,  was  impudent,  so  the 
matron  claimed,  and,  without  consulting  any  officer, 
the  poor  thing  was  thrown  into  the  '  hole '  and  kept 
there  nine  days  and  nights,  sleeping  on  the  cold,  damp 
ground,  and  having  only  bread  and  water." 

There  follows  an  account  of  a  quarrel  between  the 
matron  and  the  colored  cook  which  led  to  the  former 
informing  the  other  prisoners,  in  the  filthiest  language, 
of  the  way  in  which  their  food  had  been  treated,  out 
of  spite.  It  is  quite  impossible  to  print  this  account, 
but  the  writer  says :  "  No  wonder  we  were  often  made 
sick  by  the  food,  to  the  point  of  the  whole  band  of  us 
throwing  up  the  filth  we  were  obliged  to  eat.     The 


A  FEMALE  PRISONER  AT  SAN  QUENTIN      105 

dining-room  women,  Grace  and  Barbara,  told  the 
matron  what  the  cook  had  done." 

Reference  has  been  made  to  a  woman  who  was 
thrown  into  the  dungeon  for  nine  days  and  nights,  and 
the  following  description  of  the  "  hole,"  as  it  is  called, 
is  given :  "  It  is  a  vile  place,  six  by  ten,  without  a  ray 
of  light  or  even  a  crack  for  ventilation.  One  is  thrown 
in  here  with  a  straw  mattress  on  the  cement  floor  and 
a  pair  of  blankets.  It  is  damp,  is  never  cleaned  or 
aired,  and  after  one  is  there  for  a  few  hours  the  oxy- 
gen is  exhausted  and  the  head  feels  as  if  a  tight  band 
were  around  it.  A  hunk  of  bread  and  a  pail  of  water 
furnish  the  food,  and,  as  one  is  not  allowed  anything 
else,  the  condition  of  the  hair  and  body  can  be  imag- 
ined. Women  are  thrown  into  this  place  at  the  pleas- 
ure of  the  matron,  without  any  investigation  and  with- 
out being  allowed  to  appeal  to  the  warden,  who  indeed 
has  stated  that  '  he  did  not  know  much  about  what 
went  on  in  there,'  meaning  the  women's  department." 
The  following  astounding  report  of  incarceration  in 
the  dungeon  is  then  given : 

"  A  lame  woman  named  Jennie  Downey  was  brought 
there  (to  San  Quentin)  some  six  years  ago,  who  had 
some  valuable  papers  and  notes.  These  were  taken 
from  her.  She  asked  for  a  receipt  for  them,  and, 
without  warning  or  explanation,  was  dragged  down 
to  the  dungeon  and  hterally  thrown  in.  In  this  vile 
place  she  remained  eighty-three  days,  in  the  condi- 
tions I  have  before  described.  While  in  there  she  was 
subjected  to  the  most  dreadful  abuse  by  the  negress 
who  was  trusty.  The  small  bottle  of  water  given  her 
was  filled  with  urine  instead  of  water,  and  her  cloth- 
ing literally  dropped  off  her.  She  refused  to  apolo- 
gize to  the  matron  and  was  then  put  in  the  strait- 


io6 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

jacket  and  given  heavy  doses  of  castor  oil.  You  can 
imagine  the  result  to  the  poor  wretch.  She  was  at 
last  taken  out  and  given  a  pair  of  crutches.  These 
crutches  she  was  allowed  to  keep  until  May,  1908, 
when,  on  some  trifling  discussion  about  her  name  aris- 
ing, she  was  knocked  down  by  the  matron,  dragged 
to  her  room,  and  shut  in  on  bread  and  water  for  three 
nionths.  When  she  was  allowed  to  come  out  her 
crutches  were  not  given  to  her  and  her  only  means  of 
locomotion  was  to  hitch  along  in  a  small  rocking-chair. 
As  late  as  June  7,  1909  —  more  than  a  year  —  this 
has  lasted.  I  know  nothing  since  then.  It  is  to  be 
remembered  that  this  woman  has  to  do  her  share  of 
the  work  just  the  same  as  those  who  are  not  crippled." 

If  possible  an  even  worse  story  follows:  "A  col- 
ored woman  named  Belle  N.  was  serving  a  term  of  ten 
years.  At  the  end  of  three  years,  after  having  been 
accorded  the  privileges  accorded  to  all  colored  women, 
she  turned  on  the  matron  and  made  threats  that  she 
would  do  her  bodily  harm.  This  woman  was  locked 
in  her  cell,  and  for  three  years,  or  nearly  four,  was 
never  allowed  to  leave  it  save  for  one  hour  every  Fri- 
day. Just  one  month  before  her  release  should  have 
come  she  was  removed  to  an  insane  asylum,  and  in 
two  weeks  was  a  corpse.  A  great,  healthy  animal  she 
was,  but  dangerous  to  the  matron. 

"  Another  woman,  Doshia  Nolan,  forced  her  way 
out  to  the  officers  and  denounced  the  matron  and  her 
actions  in  no  uncertain  terms.  Doshia  was  not  pun- 
ished —  at  least  not  with  the  dungeon  —  and  when  1 
asked  the  matron  why,  her  answer  was :  '  I  have  more 
than  one  way  of  punishing  those  that  dare  to  talk 
about  me.'     Doshia  soon  afterward  was  stricken  with 


A  FEMALE  PRISONER  AT  SAN  QUENTIN      107 

some  disease  of  the  stomach  which  the  doctor  could 
not  reach,  and  the  woman  is  now  either  dead  or 
dying." 

Marie  J.,  the  seamstress,  who  was  also  a  trusty,  had 
the  misfortune  to  witness  indecencies  too  gross  for 
print.  Perhaps  the  situation  is  best  hinted  at  by 
quoting  from  "The  Ballad  of  Reading  Gaol,"  where 
Wilde  says: 

"  And  they  do  well  to  hide  their  hell, 

For  in  it  deeds  are  done 

That  Son  of  God  nor  son  of  man 

Ever  should  look  upon." 

The  woman  was  promptly  given  an  impossible  task, 
and,  on  declaring  her  inability  to  perform  it,  was 
thrown  into  the  dungeon  for  two  days,  obviously  as  a 
threat  of  what  would  follow  disclosures. 

In  the  earlier  portion  of  this  narrative  reference  is 
made  to  the  fact  that  the  matron  carried  letters 
between  Fred  W.,  a  male  convict,  and  Grace  G.,  a 
female  inmate,  and  the  following  episode  is  given  in 
the  writer's  own  words :  "  In  February,  1909,  Grace 
discovered  that  a  type-written  letter  addressed  to  the 
matron,  and  delivered  to  Grace  by  her,  was  missing. 
She  reported  the  loss  to  the  matron  and  great  excite- 
ment was  noticed,  but,  of  course,  nothing  was  said 
aloud.  The  letter  was  written  on  a  page  of  paper 
evidently  torn  from  a  day-book,  and  on  a  typewriter, 
and  was  as  follows : 
"  '  Mrs.  Van  Doren, 

"  '  Won't  you  please  accept  in  the  spirit  in  which 
it  is  given  one  of  the  boxes  as  a  slight  token  of  my 
appreciation  of  the  many  "  good  mornings." 

"  '  I  know  that  one  in  my  position  should  not  pre- 
sume to  offer  you  a  Xmas  greeting,  and  I  sincerely 


io8 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

trust  that  you  will  not  feel  offended  by  my  doing  so. 

"  '  The  other  box  and  the  cake  are  intended  for  one 
I  care  more  for  than  you  think,  and  with  it  goes  all 
my  love,  a  Xmas  kiss  and  a  big  squeeze  —  all  of  which 
you  will  deliver  if  you  will  be  so  kind. 

"  '  Trusting  you  will  pardon  my  audacity,  and  with 
best  wishes  for  you  and  yours  I  am,  I  realize,  still 

" '  A  Nuisance.' 

"  He  signed  himself  thus  as  it  was  her  favorite  name 
for  him.  The  above  letter  was  duly  delivered  to  Grace, 
with  a  two-pound  box  of  candy  and  large  fruit  cake. 
As  soon  as  possible  (after  the  letter  was  missed)  a 
charge  of  talking  against  the  matron  was  brought 
against  the  woman  suspected  of  having  this  letter,  and, 
without  any  investigation,  she  was  thrown  into  the 
dungeon,  while  suffering  from  the  grippe.  It  was  in 
February,  1909,  and  it  was  cold,  wet  and  altogether 
awful  in  the  vile  dungeon.  The  woman  was  delirious 
and  in  the  night  fell  and  severely  injured  herself. 
When  allowed  to  come  out  she  was  found  to  be  suf- 
fering from  paralysis  of  one  side,  brought  on  by  ner- 
vous shock  and  the  fall.  Before  this  woman  left  the 
matron  confessed  to  her,  in  the  presence  of  Grace,  that 
she  had  made  a  mistake. 

"  The  matron  did  not,  and  could  not,  deny  that  she 
had  brought  the  letter  in,  but  took  the  ground  that  it 
did  not  amount  to  anything.  She  was  very  anxious, 
however,  to  know  how  Ruby  C.,  who  was  cognizant 
of  all  that  had  passed,  would  stand  in  case  the  let- 
ter ever  found  its  way  to  the  warden.  When 
Ruby  C.  told  her  she  would  tell  the  truth,  the 
mental  suffering  fell  to  her  lot,  and  only  she  and  her 
God  can  know  through  what  she  has  passed.  These 
things  are  known  to  all  the  women  who  were  there 


A  FEMALE  PRTSONER  AT  SAN  QUENTIN     109 

in  June,  1909,  but  such  is  the  fear  under  which  they 
live  that  I  do  not  suppose  anyone  would  dare  to  tell 
all  she  knew.  But  many  of  them  declared,  many 
times,  that  if  the  warden  or  the  board  would  promise 
them  immunity  from  the  matron's  rage  they  would 
gladly  make  known  the  terrible  conditions  under  which 
they  live. 

"  The  letter,  a  copy  of  which  I  have  given,  was 
secreted  in  a  part  of  the  building,  and  the  warden  was 
informed  of  the  whole  story  and  was  told,  in  the  pres" 
ence  of  a  witness,  where  he  could  find  it  and  prove, 
beyond  a  doubt,  the  truth  of  the  charge.  Whether  he 
has  taken  any  steps  toward  protecting  the  women  I  do 
not  know.  But,  if  the  matron  told  us  the  truth,  no 
officer  is  ever  reprimanded  for  doing  wrong.  Only 
the  unfortunate  prisoners  suffer.  She  told  us,  and  we  v 
beHeved  it,  that  '  everything  here  is  a  wheel  within  a 
wheel,'  and  that  '  we  all  take  an  oath  when  we  come 
into  office  to  stand  by  each  other  to  the  death  against 
anything  ever  done  by  a  prisoner.' " 

This  incident  has  been  related  at  considerable  length 
because,  by  the  very  secrecy  that  surrounds  all  prison 
life,  documentary  proof  of  charges  made  rarely  exists. 

Here  is  another  charge  that  surely  calls  for  the 
promptest  investigation.  "  I  referred  some  pages  back 
to  the  inhuman  punishment  meted  out  to  Jennie 
Downey,  the  cripple.  The  matron  told  us  that  when 
her  time  would  be  almost  up  they  intended  to  railroad 
her  to  an  asylum,  as  they  did  Belle  N.,  and  get  rid  of 
her  that  way.  The  woman  has  no  friends  that  know 
of  her  plight,  and  she  will  be  an  easy  woman  to  dis- 
pose of. 

"  If  a  woman  tries  to  get  parole  proceedings  before 
the  board,  and  has  no  powerful  friends,  the  matron 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


simply  pigeon-holes  her  papers  and  there  the  matter 
ends.  K.  Hansen,  the  parole  officer,  wrote  to  the 
matron  regarding  the  parole  of  a  sixteen-year-old  girl, 
and  as  the  matron  came  into  the  pen  from  her  home 
the  girl  was  standing  on  the  platform  of  the  stairs. 
Looking  up  toward  her  the  matron  exclaimed :  '  I  got 
a  letter  from  Hansen  this  morning,  and  if  you  come 
before  the  board  I'll  knock  you  and  tell  them  you're 
a  little  tough.'    This  was  heard  by  several  women." 

In  Col.  Griffith's  narrative  considerable  stress  was 
laid  on  the  insufficiency  of  the  medical  aid  granted  to 
sick  convicts,  and  the  utter  brutality  of  the  methods 
constantly  adopted.  The  same  note  comes  from  the 
women's  department,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  follow- 
ing quotation :  "  The  present  incumbent  is  a  dissi- 
pated young  fellow,  who  would  not  be  tolerated  as  a 
physician  in  any  place  save  wdiere  he  is.  He  was 
invariably  intoxicated  when  called  in,  and  if  it  were 
after  5  p.m.  his  anger  and  vulgarity  knew  no  bounds. 
He  would  abuse  and  insult  the  women  in  the  vilest 
and  coarsest  of  language,  and,  of  course,  the  poor 
creatures  had  no  redress.  A  poor  little  Chinese  woman 
was  very  ill  one  night,  and  when  her  room-mate 
expressed  fears  for  her  welfare  the  abuse  and  vile 
words  he  made  use  of  were  heard  up  and  down  tl'^e 
length  of  the  hall.  One  of  the  worst  instances  of  the 
abuse  of  the  helpless  and  crippled  was  that  of  a  poor 
little  Indian  woman  named  Juanita.  This  woman  was 
a  sufferer  from  hip  disease  and  walked  with  a  dread- 
ful limp,  one  hip  being  much  higher  than  the  other. 
The  matron  put  this  little  cripple  in  the  kitchen  as 
helper  for  the  great  negress  Ethel,  and  the  lazy  negress 
put  the  burden  of  the  work  on  Juanita.  Many  times 
a  day  could  she  b?  seen  lugging  tvy^o  great  buckets  of 


A  FEMALE  PRISONER  AT  SAN  QUENTIN      m 

coal  across  the  yard  for  use  in  the  kitchen,  and  the 
lifting  of  all  the  heavy  pots  and  kettles  fell  to  her 
share.  She  rose  at  5  a.m.,  scrubbed  the  floor  of  the 
kitchen,  and  started  the  cooking  of  the  coffee  and 
mush  while  the  cook  slept.  After  many  months  the 
little  cripple  was  taken  sick,  from  exposure  and  over- 
work, and  the  doctor  was  called.  When  Juanita  tried 
to  describe  her  pain,  and  placed  her  hand  on  her  hip 
and  called  it  her  side,  the  matron  and  doctor  thought 
it  a  great  joke  and  told  it  all  over  the  house,  with  the 
remark  that  Juanita  only  wanted  to  get  out  of  the 
work.  In  April,  1909,  a  few  weeks  later,  the  little 
cripple  fell  for  the  last  time,  and  when  it  was  seen 
that  death  was  near  much  was  done  for  her.  She  had 
been  suffering  all  the  time  from  tuberculosis,  and  in 
April,  1909,  passed  away  to  freedom." 

Inroughout  this  account  the  greatest  emphasis  is 
laid,  and  properly,  on  the  irresponsible  autocratic 
power  that  the  matron  wields.  We  have. omitted  the 
far  from  flattering  descriptions  of  her  personal  appear- 
ance, thinking  it  best  that  her  picture  should  be 
reflected  solely  in  the  mirror  of  the  conditions  exist- 
ing under  her  management,  but  the  partiality  she 
showed  and  the  dread  she  inspired  are  reiterated  at 
the  very  end  of  the  narrative  in  the  following  lan- 
guage :  "  I  do  not  feel  that  I  have  made  clear  to  you 
the  abject  fear  that  is  felt  by  the  white  women  in  this 
place.  The  negresses  do  not  fear  her  so  much,  for  the 
reasons  I  have  explained,  but  the  mental  suffering  she 
causes  never  can  be  told.  Women  grow  so  nervous 
■from  actual  terror  that,  as  one  woman  expressed  it,  '  I 
shall  become  a  chattering  idiot  if  I  cannot  get  out  of 
this  vile   den.     When   she   comes   along  and   throws 


n^  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

open  my  door  and  lands  on  me  I  tremble  as  much  as 
if  a  big  bear  stood  there.'  When  I  left  San  Quentin 
one  negress,  the  big  third-timer,  was  librarian  as  well 
as  superintendent  of  the  sewing,  over  capable  white 
women ;  and  another  negress,  a  second-timer,  was  the 
dressmaker.  These  were  the  easiest  positions,  as  no 
scrubbing  or  other  hard  work  was  required  of  them. 
The  matron  knew,  of  course,  that  it  was  a  humiliation 
to  make  the  white  women  work  under  a  negress,  and 
for  that,  and  other  reasons,  gave  them  the  soft  jobs. 

"  In  conclusion  I  have  to  say  to  all  who  have  rela- 
tives so  unfortunate  as  to  be  in  danger  of  going  to 
that  living  hell  — '  Rather  than  allow  it  encourage 
them  to  commit  suicide,  for  it  would  be  preferable  to 
enduring  the  horrors  of  the  place.'  If,  by  my  sad 
experience,  I  shall  be  able  to  let  in  the  light  to  some 
of  the  minds  of  judges  who  send  women  there  I  shall 
feel  that  my  sufferings  have  not  been  in  vain.  If  by 
my  words  I  can  arouse  the  Christian  women  of  this 
state  to  a  sense  of  the  awful  conditions  there  I  shall 
have  done  much.  If  I  can  inform  Warden  Hoyle  of 
what  is  being  done  in  his  name  at  that  place,  well  and 
good.  If  I  can  only  succeed  in  arousing  the  public  to 
investigate  and  help  in  the  establishment  of  diflferent 
conditions,  I  shall  count  my  experiences  not  lost. 

"  I  have  not,  and  I  cannot,  tell  one-hundredth  part 
of  the  awfulness  of  the  place,  which  is  fitly  described 
by  all  the  women  as  a  '  veritable  hell  on  earth.'  " 

Mrs.  Hester  T.  Griffith  of  Los  Angeles,  president 
of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  of 
Southern  California  and  for  years  active  in  prison 
work,  makes  the  following  statement :  "  I  have  been 
at  the  greatest  pains  to  verify  the  foregoing  accoimt 
of  life  in  the  female  department  of  San  Quentin,  fur- 


A  FEMALE  PRISONER  AT  SAN  QUENTIN      113 

nished  to  the  Prison  Reform  League  by  a  former 
inmate  of  the  prison.  To  this  end  I  have  interviewed 
those  referred  to  in  the  fourth  paragraph  as  corrob- 
orating the  account,  and  I  am  well  satisfied  that  it  is 
true,  the  fact  being  that  much  has  been  left  unsaid  out 
of  regard  for  public  decency.  Within  the  past  few 
days  I  have  received,  for  example,  the  following  from 
a  former  inmate  of  the  female  department  at  San 
Quentin : 

"  '  I  went  to  see  M.  yesterday  and  if  you  could  hear 
a  story  of  all  she  knew  and  saw  you  would  shudder. 
The  account  of  the  members  of  the  legislature  in  1904 
and  1905  visiting  in  the  night  —  after  matron  had 
gone  home  —  all  of  them  drunk,  of  the  happenings  in 
the  rooms  of  the  fast  women  there,  of  the  taking  of 
money  from  the  men,  especially  "  Papa  Bliss  "  as  the 
women  called  him,  and  Capt.  Harrison  of  the  guard 
who  accompanied  him.  It  all  makes  me  sick  to  think 
of  it!' 

"  Hester  T.  Griffith, 

"  Oct.  5,  1909." 

The  charge  contained  in  the  last  paragraph  has  been 
confirmed  by  other  testimony. 

With  shame,  as  Americans,  we  append  by  way  of 
contrast  the  following  description  of  life  among  the 
female  prisoners  of  Japan,  written  by  Elizabeth  Sloan 
Chesser  for  the  Guardian,  a  journal  of  established 
reputation : 

"  It  is  difficult  to  associate  the  light-hearted,  child- 
Hke  Japanese  women  with  the  dark,  forbidding  and 
depressing  side  of  life  suggested  by  prison.  But  even 
in  the  Land  of  the  Rising  Sun  crime  and  the  punish- 


114    ■  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

ment  of  it  have  to  be  reckoned  with,  and  the  question 
of  reforming  woman  criminals  is  a  prominent  one  in 
Japan  just  now. 

"  Penology  has  made  rapid  advances  there  of  recent 
years  because  the  Japanese  have  the  capacity  of  assim- 
ilating the  best  methods  of  other  countries  in  every 
"subject  they  seriously  consider.  They  realize  that  the 
prevention  of  crime  is  even  more  important  than  its 
cure,  and  the  drift  of  their  legislation  is  toward  nip- 
ping crime  in  the  bud.  They  have  grasped  the  funda- 
m.ental  principle  that  much  crime  is  due  to  adverse 
social  conditions,  and  their  idea  is  to  lessen  tempta- 
tions to  crime  by  improving  the  social  and  economic 
state  of  the  people  and  by  probationary  methods. 

"  With  regard  to  their  treatment  of  women  and  girls 
sentenced  to  prison  for  such  crimes  as  theft,  drunken- 
ness, arson  (a  very  common  and  serious  crime  in 
Japan,  where  the  tiny  wooden  houses  blaze  and  burn 
in  a  few  minutes,  and  fire  spreads  quickly  from  house 
to  house),  reformatory  methods  are  rapidly  being  em- 
ployed all  over  the  country.  When  I  visited  Ichigaya, 
one  of  the  chief  prisons  for  women  in  Japan,  I  was  much 
struck  by  the  humane  and  curative  system  that  has 
been  organized  of  recent  years.  The  first  impression 
of  the  prison  contrasts  markedly  with  one's  idea  of  a 
prison  in  this  country. 

"  There  are  no  massive  buildings  and  glass  windows 
with  iron  bars,  no  bare  stone  floors,  no  long  corridors 
and  tiny  cells  where  the  prisoners  spend  long  hours  in 
solitary  confinement.  The  buildings  surround  a  cen- 
tral court-yard,  and  are  built  of  wooden  planks  or 
standards,  cage  fashion,  so  that  the  prisoners  are  liv- 
ing an  open  air  life  day  and  night.  The  floors  are 
covered  with  corn-colored  matting  and  the  woodwork 


A  FEMALE  PRISONER  AT  SAN  QUENTIN      115 

is  polished  till  every  grain  is  visible.  The  prisoners 
wear  pink  crepe  kimonos,  which  contrast  with  their 
ivory  faces  and  gleaming  hair. 

"  We  were  taken  to  one  large  room  where  three 
rows  of  pink-clad  figures  were  squatting  Japanese 
fashion  on  pink  cushions  on  the  floor.  They  greeted 
us  with  shy  smiles  and  soft  murmurs  of  '  Ohayo,'  the 
Japanese  '  Good-day,'  while  they  simultaneously  bowed 
the  blue  black  heads  to  the  ground.  Politeness  is  one 
of  the  chief  virtues  in  Japan,  and  in  the  prisons  special 
lessons  are  given  in  manners  and  deportment,  and 
classes  are  even  held  to  teach  the  art  of  tea  serving, 
which  is  an  important  ceremony  with  the  Japanese. 
The  idea  is  that  whatever  raises  the  self-respect  of 
the  prisoner,  whatever  improves  her  behavior  and 
manners,  aids  her  reformation.  The  teaching  is  very 
comprehensive.  Lessons  are  given  in  weaving,  dress- 
making and  sewing,  and  we  saw  some  exquisite 
embroideries  made  in  the  prison  and  artistic  garments 
cut  kimono  fashion. 

"  The  prisoners  work  in  sheds  all  day,  so  that  the 
cells  are  practically  sleeping  apartments,  and  it  has 
been  found  that  working  in  association  under  official 
control  makes  for  reform  and  health.  Prison  in  Japan 
is  an  educational  agency  and  the  women  work  and  are 
paid  wages  for  what  they  do.  Prizes  and  decorative 
awards  are  also  given  as  an  incentive  to  good  work 
and  conduct. 

"  The  Japanese  of  today  could  teach  us  a  great  deal 
in  the  matter  of  penology.  They  allow  their  prisoners 
more  liberty,  they  show  a  more  sympathetic  interest 
in  their  welfare,  than  we  do.  Everything  is  done  to 
teach  them  industry  and  morality.     As  their  behavior 


ii6  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

improves  they  are  given  better  food  and  various  priv- 
ileges. Everything  and  every  prisoner  is  scrupulously 
clean. 

"We  visited  the  bathroom,  which  contained  about 
fifty  quaint  little  wooden  tubs,  measuring  two  feet  by 
four  feet.  These  are  not  for  washing  purposes,  but 
are  a  much  appreciated  luxury.  A  Japanese  washes 
before  entering  a  bath,  and  everybody  has  heard  of 
the  custom  of  that  country  that  makes  bathing  a  reg- 
ular household  ceremony  partaken  of  in  order  of 
precedence.  Every  prisoner  has  to  wash  three  times 
a  day  and  has  a  hot  bath  three  times  a  week  in  Japan. 
When  the  prisoners  have  served  their  sentences 
arrangements  are  made  by  the  state  for  providing  them 
with  remunerative  work  on  discharge." 

It  is,  however,  some  consolation  to  reflect  that  since 
the  foregoing  account  of  life  in  the  female  department 
of  San  Quentin  was  written  the  matron  alluded  to  has 
sent  in  her  resignation.  That  the  matter  should  not 
be  allowed  to  rest  there  seems,  to  us,  a  self-evident 
proposition. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SOUTHERN  CONVICT  CAMPS 

For  a  long  time  we  held  the  opinion  that  nothing 
since  the  days  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition  has  exceeded 
in  horror  the  atrocities  reported  from  the  southern 
convict  camps,  but  of  late  that  opinion  has  begun  to 
waver.  In  these  camps,  as  established  by  overwhelm- 
ing evidence,  murder,  whippings,  the  rape  of  women 
convicts  by  their  guards,  and  other  outrages  to  be 
described  in  this  chapter,  have  been  of  constant  occur- 
rence; but  whether  all  these  combined  equal  in  atroc- 
ity the  secret  torture  administered  in  such  penitentia- 
ries as  we  have  selected  for  illustration  of  our  north- 
ern methods  has  become  with  us  an  open  question. 
Certainly  the  mind  cannot  conceive  a  picture  of  more 
helpless  misery  than  that  presented  by  the  prisoner 
manacled  in  the  "  humming-bird "  bath  or  chained 
down  in  the  water-cure  tub,  and  there  is  this  about 
many  of  the  southern  crimes  against  prisoners  —  they 
are  done  boldly  and  in  the  open;  their  scene  is  not  a 
dungeon,  impenetrable  to  light  and  sound,  and  it 
seems  possible  for  the  victim  to  put  up  a  fight  and 
occasionally  make  his  escape.  In  any  event  we  are 
willing  to  give  the  South  the  benefit  of  the  doubt,  and 
she  needs  it,  for  her  case  is  bad  enough.  Let  us  be- 
gin with  Georgia,  for  it  was  there  that  the  voice  of 
utter  misery  at  last  succeeded  in  attracting  the  public 
ear.  The  facts  in  the  case  are  given,  clearly  and  suc- 
cinctly, in  an  article  by  George  Herbert  Clarke,  pub- 


ii8  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

lished  in  the  Outlook,  New  York,  in  January,  1906, 
and  entitled  "  Georgia  and  the  Chain  Gang." 

By  an  act  passed  in  1897  and  amended  August  13, 
1903,  Georgia  created  a  state  prison  commission, 
which  was  empowered  to  hire  out  felony  convicts  for 
a  term  of  five  years.  Both  individuals  and  corpora- 
tions were  authorized  to  bid  for  the  services  of  these 
men,  and  it  was  stipulated  that  $175  per  annum 
should  be  the  minimum  price  accepted.  Under  the 
provisions  of  this  act  we  find  that  fifteen  hundred 
men  were  disposed  of  at  a  single  auction  sale,  held 
April  I,  1906.  Prisoners  are  disposed  of  in  gangs 
of  not  less  than  twenty-five  or  more  than  fifty.  In 
other  words  they  are  sold  as  sheep  to  the  slaughterer, 
human  individuality  not  being  considered.  The  state 
obligingly  furnishes  the  guards,  and,  with  cruel  irony, 
physicians.  The  valuable  assistance  rendered  by 
these  latter  may  be  judged  by  the  following  testimony 
given  by  Col.  Byrd,  who  was  appointed  to  inquire 
into  and  report  on  the  conditions  prevailing  in  the 
state's  convict  camps.  He  is  speaking  of  the  W.  H. 
and  J.  H.  Grifiin  camp,  in  Wilkes  county,  Georgia: 

"  When  the  door  was  opened  and  I  had  recovered 
from  the  shock  caused  by  the  rush  of  foul  air  I  no- 
ticed a  sick  negro  sitting  in  the  room.  How  human 
beings  could  consign  a  fellow-being  to  such  an  exist- 
ence I  cannot  understand  any  more  than  I  can  under- 
stand how  a  human  being  could  survive  a  night  of 
confinement  in  such  a  den.  There  was  an  open  can 
in  the  center  of  the  room,  and  it  looked  as  if  it  had 
not  been  emptied  in  a  fortnight.  A  small  bit  of 
cornbread  lay  on  a  blanket  near  the  negro,  and  that 


SOUTHERN  CONVICT  CAMPS  119 

poor  victim,  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor  only,  while  sick, 
confined  in  this  sweatbox  dungeon,  humbly  asked  to 
be  furnished  with  a  drink  of  water.  It  was  in  this 
gang  that  I  found  Lizzie  Boatwright,  a  nineteen- 
year-old  negress,  sent  up  from  Thomas,  Ga.,  for  lar- 
ceny. She  was  clad  in  men's  clothing,  and  was  work- 
ing side  by  side  with  male  convicts  under  a  guard, 
cutting  a  ditch  through  a  meadow.  The  girl  was 
small  of  stature  and  pleasant  of  address,  and  her  life 
in  this  camp  must  have  been  one  of  long-drawn-out 
agony,  horror  and  suffering.  She  told  me  she  had 
been  whipped  twice,  each  time  by  the  brutal  white 
guard  who  had  beaten  McRay  to  death,  and  who  pros- 
tituted his  legal  right  to  whip  into  a  most  revolting 
and  disgusting  outrage.  This  girl  and  another 
woman  were  stripped  and  beaten  unmercifully  in 
plain  view  of  the  men  convicts,  because  they  stopped 
on  the  side  of  the  road  to  bind  a  rag  about  their  sore 
feet." 

The  Atlantic  Constitution,  which  bravely  defied  lo- 
cal prejudice  to  expose  these  atrocities,  said  of  Col. 
Byrd's  report  that  "  it  was  not  written  by  a  north- 
erner, who  does  not  understand  conditions  in  the 
South,  or  the  people  living  in  that  section;  but  it  is 
written  by  one  of  the  South's  most  distinguished  cit- 
izens, who  did  not  deal  in  glittering  generalities,  but 
in  facts."  And  his  charges  are  thus  summed  up  by 
Mary  Church  Terrell  in  an  article  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  an  English  publication  of  high  standing,  of 
August,  1907,  entitled  "  Peonage  in  the  United 
States." 


I20  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

(i)  Robbing  convicts  of  their  time  allowances  for 
good  behavior.  (This  was  shown  to  be  almost  uni- 
versal.) 

(2)  Forcing  convicts  to  work  from  fourteen  to 
twenty  hours  a  day. 

(3)  Providing  them  no  clothes,  no  shoes,  no  beds, 
no  heat  in  winter  and  no  ventilation  whatever  in 
single  rooms  in  summer,  in  which  sixty  convicts  slept 
in  chains. 

(4)  Giving  them  rotten  food.  (It  was  shown 
that  many  of  the  convicts,  buried  in  the  depths  of  the 
forests,  never  tasted  vegetables  from  one  year's  end 
to  another,  the  method  of  feeding  them  being  for  the 
guards,  when  the  day's  work  was  done,  to  toss  them 
lumps  of  raw  meat  which  they  themselves  were  ex- 
pected to  cook.) 

(5)  Allowing  them  to  die,  when  sick,  for  lack  of 
medical  attention. 

(6)  Outraging  the  women. 

(7)  Beating  to  death  old  men  too  feeble  to  work. 

(8)  Killing  young  men  for  the  mere  sake  of 
killing. 

(9)  Suborning  jurors  and  county  officers,  whose 
sworn  duty  it  is  to  avenge  the  wrongdoing  of  guards. 

Col.  Byrd  also  called  specific  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  death  rate  in  the  private  camps  was  double 
that  which  prevailed  in  the  county  camps.  He  found 
that  in  one  of  the  camps  one  out  of  every  four  con- 
victs died  during  incarceration.  In  another  camp  one 
out  of  every  six  unfortunates,  "  who  had  committed," 
as  he  says,  "  some  slight  infraction  of  the  law,  if  he 
were  guilty  at  all,  was  thrust  into  a  camp  which  he 


SOUTHERN  CONVICT  CAMPS  121 

never  left  alive."  In  twenty-one  out  of  twenty-four 
private  camps  there  were  neither  hospital  buildings 
nor  arrangements  of  any  kind  for  the  sick. 

In  his  general  criticism  of  the  entire  convict  leasing 
system  Col.  Byrd  says :  "  The  whole  political  ma- 
chinery of  the  state  and  county  stood  in  with  the  les- 
sees because  the  first  money  earned  by  the  poor  vic- 
tims paid  the  cost'  of  trial  and  conviction.  Not  a 
dollar  of  the  rental  for  the  convicts  reached  the  county 
treasury  till  sheriff,  deputy  sheriff,  county  solicitors, 
bailiffs,  court  clerks,  justices  of  the  peace,  constables 
and  other  officials  who  aided  in  putting  the  convict  in 
the  chain  gang  were  paid  their  fees  in  full." 

About  two  years  ago  The  Outlook  paid  much  atten- 
tion to  the  subject  of  lynching,  which  had  been 
brought  somewhat  conspicuously  into  public  notice  by 
the  riots  in  Atlanta,  Ga.  In  February,  1907,  it  pub- 
lished two  articles  giving  both  the  northern  and  the 
southern  view  of  lynching.  The  latter  was  repre- 
sented by  Mr.  Alexander  Hooper,  a  leading  member 
of  the  Georgia  bar,  who  reminded  his  readers  that 
Georgia  had  more  negroes  than  any  other  state,  and 
that  Georgia's  attitude,  therefore,  must  be  considered 
typical  of  the  entire  South.  The  article  concludes 
with  the  following  remarks :  "  The  people  of  Geor- 
gia are  entirely  capable  of  governing  the  negro  effect- 
ively and  without  any  failure  either  of  kindness  or 
justice,  and  will  do  so  when  permitted,  protecting  him 
in  life,  liberty  and  property.  The  people  of  the 
sorthern  states  have  more  skill  in  the  science  of  gov- 
ernment and  more  of  the  genuine  spirit  of  democracy 
than  any  other  people  on  earth."  Col.  Byrd's  reports 
had    been    discussed   extensively    when    Mr.    Hooper 


122  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

wrote  those  words,  and  he  must  have  been  familiar 
with  them. 

Evidently  Col.  Byrd's  experiences  had  brought  him 
to  the  opinion  held  by  us  —  that  the  policy  of  deter- 
rence, though  pushed  to  its  extremest  limits,  does  not 
deter,  for  he  says :  "  My  observation  has  been  that 
where  the  strap  has  been  used  the  least  the  best  camps 
exist  and  the  best  work  is  turned  out  by  the  convicts." 
The  tenth  annual  report  of  the  Georgia  state  prison 
commission,  published  in  June,  1907,  teaches  the  same 
lesson,  for  it  states  that  the  number  of  felony  convicts 
had  increased  in  the  year  1905-1906  —  the  last  for 
which  full  figures  were  available.  On  the  other  hand 
the  number'  of  misdemeanor  convicts  on  the  county 
chain  gangs  had  decreased  fully  ten  per  cent.,  but  the 
secretary  explains  this  by  saying  that,  on  account  of 
the  scarcity  of  lalor,  farmers  who  are  able  to  do  so 
pay  the  fines  of  able-bodied  prisoners  and  put  them  to 
work  on  their  plantations.  But  for  this  there  would 
have  been  an  increase  in  the  number  of  misdemean- 
ants on  the  registers.  The  ingenuousness  of  the  ex- 
planation will  be  noted. 

Misdemeanants  are  also  worked  by  many  of  the 
counties  in  Georgia,  and  we  refer  again  to  the  article 
by  Mr.  Clarke,  in  which  it  is  stated  that  one  record- 
er's court  alone  tries  some  5000  annually,  many  of 
whom  are  sentenced  to  the  chain  gang  for  the  most 
trivial  offenses.  The  treatment  meted  out  to  them 
there  may  be  summed  up  thus :  They  work  on  the 
roads  from  sunrise  to  sunset,  wearing  striped  suits 
and  with  iron  manacles  around  their  ankles.  Guards 
armed  with  rifles  and  shotguns  stand  over  them,  and 
there  is  always  a  whipping  boss  who  uses  a  broad, 


SOUTHERN  CONVICT  CAMPS  123 

thick  strap,  more  than  three  feet  long  and  tapering. 
At  night  the  men  sleep  on  a  straw  mattress  in  a  rough 
bunk,  neither  their  clothes  nor  their  fetters  being  re- 
moved. Moreover,  they  are  all  bound  to  a  long  chain, 
secured  at  either  end  to  opposite  sides  of  the  stockade. 
We  presume  that  there  are  those  who  cannot  compre- 
hend the  hygienic  bestiality  and  suffering  that  such 
arrangements  must  involve,  but  they  must  be  singu- 
larly wanting  in  imagination.  It  may  be  doubted  if 
there;  is  another  animal  save  man  that  would  not  rebel 
violently  against  such  conditions. 

The  negroes  outnumber  the  white  men  in  Georgia 
by  fifteen  to  one,  but  there  are  many  white  men  on  the 
chain  gangs  and  their  condition  is  described  as  most 
pitiable. 

While  the  whip  is  in  frequent  use  on  the  roads  dur- 
ing the  day,  the  beatings  that  follow  the  return  to 
camp  are  said  to  be  much  more  severe,  the  victim  be- 
ing stretched  over  an  inclined  support  or  lashed  to  a 
barrel.  It  may  be  remarked  incidentally  that  the  con- 
stitution of  the  state  of  Georgia  expressly  prohibits 
whipping  as  a  punishment.  It  is  a  good  illustration 
of  the  futility  of  laws  when  not  enforced  by  public 
opinion. 

The  conditions  sketched  above  are  by  no  means  pe- 
culiar to  Georgia,  although  it  was  there  that  they  first 
developed  into  a  scandal  of  international  proportions, 
for  the  situation  has  been  much  discussed  in  England 
and,  doubtless,  in  other  European  countries. 

Happily  in  Georgia  public  opinion  finally  took 
shape  and  asserted  itself,  largely  on  account  of  the 
disclosures  made  by  a  section  of  the  press  under  the 
leadership  of  Mr.  Fred  L.  Seely,  owner  and  editor  of 


124  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

the  Georgian,  an  Atlanta  daily.  As  the  result  of  their 
vigorous  attacks  on  the  convict  lease  system  the  pen- 
itentiary committee  of  the  legislature  of  1907-8  made 
an  examination  which,  though  hasty,  showed  that  the 
entire  arrangement  reeked  with  cruelty  and  was  hon- 
eycombed with  corruption.  Notwithstanding  which 
it  brought  in  a  bill  providing  for  another  five-year 
lease,  to  be  renewed  automatically.  A  storm  of  pro- 
test followed,  mass  meetings  were  held  throughout 
the  state,  and  Gov.  Smith  allowed  it  to  be  understood 
that  he  would  veto  any  bill  that  did  not  provide  for 
the  abolition  of  the  system  when  the  existing  lease 
terminated.  The  senate  upheld  the  governor,  but  the 
house  still  favored  the  old  conditions,  and  the  legis- 
lature adjourned  in  a  deadlock.  Thereupon  the  gov- 
ernor immediately  called  an  extra  session,  at  which 
the  lease  system  was  finally  abolished,  it  being  deter- 
mined that  the  counties  should  divide  among  them- 
selves the  felony  convicts,  employing  them  on  the  pub- 
lic roads  under  a  state  supervision  far  stricter  than 
that  which  had  prevailed.  Provision  was  made  also 
for  the  purchase  of  state  farms. 

The  revelations  produced  an  impression  so  pro- 
found that  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  they 
will  have  brought  not  Georgia  alone,  but  the  entire 
South  to  a  realization  of  the  gravity  of  the  problem, 
and  the  1908  annual  session  of  the  American  Prison 
Association,  which  was  held  in  Richmond,  Va.,  devoted 
considerable  time  to  the  discussion  of  this  particular 
phase  of  the  question.  For  the  scandals  exposed  in 
Georgia  started  a  train  of  investigation  that  covered 
almost  the  entire  South,  and  especially  Louisiana,  Ala- 
bama,   Mississippi,    North    Carolina,    Tennessee    and 


SOUTHERN  CONVICT  CAMPS  125 

Florida.  We  are  inclined  to  think  that  the  worst  re- 
ports came  from  the  mines  and  lumber  camps  of 
Florida,  although  where  all  is  unspeakably  atrocious 
it  is  difficult  to  award  pre-eminence.  The  Cosmopol- 
itan commissioned  Mr.  Richard  Barry,  who  had  made 
a  brilliant  record  as  a  war  correspondent  at  Port  Ar- 
thur, to  make  inquiry,  and  he  reported  in  March, 
1907,  under  the  heading  "  Slavery  in  the  South  To- 
day." We  quote  first  from  the  editor's  preface,  as 
showing  the  mercenary  forces  at  work,  his  statement 
being  as  follows : 

"  In  a  new  and  sinister  guise  slavery  has  again 
reared  its  hideous  head,  a  monster  suddenly  emerging 
from  the  slimy,  sordid  depths  of  an  inferno  peopled 
by  brutes  and  taskmasters  in  human  semblance. 
Whites  and  blacks  are  today  being  held  indiscrim- 
inately as  chattel  slaves,  and  the  manacle,  lash,  blood- 
hound and  bullet  are  teaching  them  submission  with- 
out partiality  to  color.  Like  a  galvanic  shock  it  un- 
dermines our  self-importance  to  find  that  the  new 
form  of  slavery  places  white  and  black  on  a  plane  of 
perfect  equality  and  enslaves  both  with  generous  dis- 
regard of  ancestry  or  complexion.  .  .  .  The  con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  prohibits  slavery;  every 
state  constitution  does  the  same ;  but  now,  at  this  very 
hour,  an  atrocious,  bloodthirsty  system  of  chattel 
slavery  exists  in  many  of  our  southern  states.  The 
Standard  Oil  company,  H.  M.  Flagler's  Florida  East 
Railway  company,  the  turpentine  trust  and  other  trusts 
have  put  in  force  a  system  of  peonage  which  is  actual 
slavery,  and  it  is  done  under  the  legal  sanction  of 
state  laws  —  not  by  direct  laws,  but  by  subterfuges 


126  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

and  circumventions  which  nevertheless  attain  the  end 
in  view." 

It  is  notorious  that  many  of  the  wealthiest  families 
now  living  in  the  South  have  built  their  fortunes  out 
of  the  conditions  we  are  describing,  and  they  held 
themselves  above  all  vulgar  prejudices  as  to  race  and 
color.  Mr.  Barry  reported  that  he  had  found  3000 
white  men  working  as  peons  on  railroad  construction 
in  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee,  and  uncovered  the 
fact  that  one  New  York  employment  agency  was 
sending  three  hundred  men  a  month  into  slavery  in 
the  turpentine  camps.  But  prior  to  his  investigations 
the  scandal  attending  the  convict  camps  of  Florida 
had  attained  such  proportions  as  to  result  in  the  con- 
viction at  Pensacola  of  five  officers  of  the  Jackson 
lumber  company,  who  were  sentenced  to  a  term  of 
seven  years,  Dec.  5,  1906.  It  was  shown  that  the 
operators,  having  obtained  men  from  the  New  York 
employment  agencies,  held  them  to  their  work  by 
threats,  intimidated  them  with  firearms,  and,  when 
they  endeavored  to  escape,  chased  them  with  blood- 
hounds. Nevertheless  certain  of  them  managed  to 
give  their  captors  the  slip,  among  them  being  a  rela- 
tive of  an  old  friend  of  Gov.  Curtis  of  Massachusetts, 
who  made  his  way  to  Boston  and  told  a  piteous  tale. 
Three  Jews,  utterly  broken  down  in  health,  crept  into 
the  offices  of  the  Jewish  Protection  Society  in  Jackson- 
ville and  showed  the  livid  scars  caused  by  the  whip. 
A  dozen  tramp  immigrants  ran  away  from  the  O'Hara 
camp  at  Buffalo  Bluff  and  startled  the  inhabitants  of 
Palatka  with  the  story  of  their  sufferings ;  and  bit  by 
bit  the  truth  came  out. 


SOUTHERN  CONVICT  CAMPS  127 

Among  the  photographs  with  which  Mr.  Barry 
illustrated  the  article  previously  referred  to  was  one 
of  a  group  of  guards  in  a  Florida  camp,  all  of  them 
obviously  little  more  than  lads.  He  himself  tells  us 
that  these  guards  are  often  boys  of  19,  who  flog  from 
mere  caprice,  wearying  of  the  monotony  of  camp  life. 
He  speaks  in  particular  of  one  camp  captain  who 
made  the  tour  twice  a  day,  to  learn  from  his  subordi- 
nates what  men  were  to  be  flogged. 

It  will  have  been  observed  that  in  the  last  two  para- 
graphs the  scope  of  our  inquiry  has  been  somewhat 
broadened,  since  it  has  included  not  only  those  ac- 
tually convicted  of  crime,  but  confessedly  innocent 
men,  decoyed  by  false  representations  and  thrown 
into  the  slavery  imposed  by  the  state  on  the  criminals 
whose  labor  it  hires  out.  The  one  dominant  idea  is 
to  make  money  by  developing  the  natural  resources  in 
the  cheapest  and  most  brutal  manner,  and  how  enor- 
mous are  the  profits  that  have  been  derived  may  be 
judged  from  the  fact  that  at  Jacksonville,  Fla.,  in 
1906,  the  state  leased  twelve  hundred  convicts  to  the 
firm  of  Barnes  &  Co.,  which  was  the  sole  bidder,  at 
57  cents  a  day  per  capita.  Barnes  &  Co.  sublet  the 
contract  to  S.  A.  Rawles  of  Ocala,  who  in  his  turn 
sublet  to  various  operators,  and  claimed  that  he  made 
a  profit  of  $100,000  by  the  transaction.  The  oper- 
ators pay  on  an  average  from  85  to  95  cents  a  day, 
and  the  difference  between  these  figures  and  the  57 
cents  given  as  the  auction  price  is  official  graft.  The 
general  course  is  described  thus  by  one  authority : 
"  The  operator  goes  to  the  deputy  sheriff,  whose  close 
confederate  is  the  justice  of  the  peace.     Neither  has 


128  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

an  income  outside  of  his  fees.  Together  they  can 
railroa^d  into  the  convict  camps  almost  any  one  they 
choose." 

That  this  last  is  a  method  of  procedure  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  South  we  shall  demonstrate  amply 
when  we  come  to  a  consideration  of  the  fee  system, 
under  which  the  income  of  constables  and  other  offi- 
cials depends  exclusively  on  the  number  of  men  whom 
they  arrest.  Meanwhile  a  conception  of  the  ease 
with  which  men  entirely  innocent  may  be  railroaded 
to  a  southern  convict  camp  may  be  gained  by  a  pe- 
rusal of  the  following  affidavit  made  by  a  deputy  sher- 
iflf  of  Florala,  Alabama,  in  which  he  says :  "  The 
state  or  county  pays  me  nothing,  I  make  between 
$5000  and  $7000  a  year.  This  is  in  reward  for  ne- 
groes who  are  needed  to  work.  I  can  take  up  any- 
body on  suspicion."  From  what  has  preceded  it  is 
evident  that  white  men  as  well  as  negroes  fall  into 
the  net. 

Here  is  a  comment  on  the  convict  camp  system  of 
another  state,  Mississippi,  by  one  of  its  most  noted 
attorneys :  "  This  institution  is  operated  for  no  other 
purpose  than  to  make  money,  and  I  can  compare  it 
with  nothing  but  Dante's  Inferno.  Hades  is  a  para- 
dise compared  with  the  convict  camps  of  Mississippi. 
If  an  able-bodied  young  man  sent  to  one  of  these 
camps  for  sixty  or  ninety  days  lives  to  return  home 
he  is  fit  for  nothing  the  rest  of  his  natural  life,  for  he 
is  a  physical  wreck  at  the  expiration  of  his  term." 
And  a  former  governor  of  Kentucky  thus  sums  up 
the  situation  in  his  state :  "  Possession  of  the  con- 
vict's person  is  an  opportunity  for  the  state  to  make 
money.     The  amount  to  be  made  is  whatever  can  be 


SOUTHERN  CONVICT  CAMPS  129 

wrung  from  him,  without  regard  to  moral  or  mortal 
consequences.  The  penitentiary  which  shows  the 
largest  cash  balance  paid  into  the  state  treasury  is  the 
best  penitentiary.  In  the  main  the  notion  is  clearly 
set  forth  and  followed  that  a  convict,  whether  pilferer 
or  murderer,  man,  woman  or  child,  has  almost  no  hu- 
man right  that  the  state  is  bound  to  be  at  any  expense 
to  protect." 

Such  is  the  penal  system  of  the  South  today ;  an 
irresponsible  despotism  of  the  most  savage  type.  If 
deterrence  were  capable  of  keeping  men  within  the 
paths  of  virtue  surely  the  South  should  be  virtuous. 
Unhappily  the  statistics  to  be  examined  shortly  will 
tell  another  story.  It  is  always  so.  Fearful  crime 
and  fearful  punishment  always  have  gone  hand  in 
hand ;  a  truth  of  which  the  Roman  empire  in  its  de- 
cay and  the  entire  history  of  Asia  afford  overwhelm- 
ing proof. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

BREAKING    THE   WILL 


In  the  last  four  chapters  we  have  shown  the  philos- 
ophy of  deterrence  at  work  in  the  penal  institutions 
of  four  great  states  —  Illinois,  Ohio,  Texas  and  Cali- 
fornia —  and  in  the  convict  camps  of  the  South.  It 
would  have  been  easy  to  have  added  to  the  number  of 
these  demonstrations,  taking,  for  example,  the  Mis- 
souri penitentiary  at  Jefferson  City,  which  has  been 
freely  exploited  by  the  press,  the  Oregon  penitentiary 
at  Salem,  Sing  Sing  in  New  York,  or  the  awful  con- 
ditions in  the  Kansas  state  penitentiary  at  Lansing, 
which  Miss  Kate  Barnard,  State  Commissioner  of 
Charities  of  Oklahoma,  exposed  so  ruthlessly.  Our 
object,  however,  is  not  to  pile  up  horrors,  but  to  show 
that  this  country  has  followed  the  policy  of  deterrence 
with  absolute  mercilessness.  The  recital  we  have  been 
compelled  to  make  has  run  the  entire  gamut  of  brutal- 
ity,, culminating  in  habitual  torture  and  not  infrequent 
murder.  If,  therefore,  this  country  is  still  confronted 
by  a  constantly  increasing  volume  of  crime  it  is  clearly 
not  because  we  have  made  the  path  of  the  criminal 
one  of  roses. 

We  pause,  however,  at  this  stage  of  our  argument 
to  put  a  question  that  must  occur  to  all  who  have  fol- 
lowed us  thus  far,  viz. :  "  Why  should  there  be  all  this 
brutality,  and,  above  all,  why  this  constant  torture  ?  " 
When  we  read  of  torture  we  think  instinctively  of 
China,  of  Asiatic  despotism,  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition, 
of  times  and  places  altogether  apart  from  our  A;iglo- 
Saxon   civilization   and   the   twentieth   century.     The 


BREAKING  THE  WILL  131 

average  man  of  today  cannot  imagine  himself  chain- 
ing helpless  creatures  down  in  tubs,  racking  them  with 
electricity  and  choking  them  well  nigh  to  death  with 
streams  of  water;  to  say  nothing  of  whipping  them 
for  trivial  offenses  until  their  shoes  are  full  of  blood. 
We  grow  indignant  when  we  hear  of  some  ignorant 
Italian  unduly  beating  his  horse,  and  if  we  knew  of 
any  private  citizen  who  had  done  to  an  enemy  one 
fraction  of  the  deviltries  to  which  convicts  are  sub- 
jected we  should  be  not  unlikely  to  propose  a  lynch- 
mg  party.  The  keepers  of  a  menagerie  caught  tor- 
turing their  helpless  animals  would  be  mobbed. 

Yet  the  convict  in  his  prison  is  as  helpless  as  any 
captive  animal.  He  is  brought  to  the  penitentiary 
shackled.  He  is  put  into  a  cell  as  secure  as  any  used 
for  the  confinement  of  the  wildest  beasts.  He  emerges 
from  this  only  to  work  and  eat;  and  at  every  step,  at 
every  moment  throughout  the  day,  he  is  flanked  and 
watched  by  guards  armed  to  the  teeth,  while  over  all 
frown  incessantly  the  Catling  guns.  Is  he  not  as  help- 
less as  the  caged  lion?  Then  why  this  constant  pun- 
ishment and  torture? 

Of  course,  in  the  first  place,  the  public  does  not 
know.  No  secrets  have  been  guarded  so  carefully  and 
long  as  those  of  the  prison,  and  it  is  only  now  that  we 
are  beginning  to  get  an  inkling  of  the  tragedies  that 
are  enacted  behind  those  gloomy  walls.  Literature  on 
this  subject  has  been  hitherto  practically  non-existent, 
and  even  today,  when  light  is  creeping  in,  the  task  of 
gathering  the  needed  materials  is  one  of  exceptional 
difficulty.  For  those  who  know  by  actual  experience 
form  a  class  so  discredited  that  they  have  been  unable 
to  win  a  hearing,  and  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases 
they  have  not  the  literary  ability  which  is  required  to 


132  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


catch  the  ear  of  a  busy  public.  Moreover,  as  a  cljiss, 
they  Hve  in  terror  of  the  vengeance  that  may  be  Vis- 
ited on  them  by  the  authorities  whom  they  accuse,  and 
their  one  absorbing  desire  is  to  conceal  from  the  world 
the  fact  that  they  have  worn  the  stripes. 

Furthermore  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  public  is 
not  naturally  sympathetic  toward  the  convict,  having 
an  inherent  dread  of  deeds  of  violence,  despite  its  ad- 
miration for  the  soldier,  and  a  strong  prejudice  against 
the  thief,  although  it  still  worships  "  high  finance." 
But,  above  all,  it  has  been  educated  studiously  to  the 
dogma  that  convicts  are  intrinsically  turbulent  and 
dangerous.  We  believe  that  this  last  is  a  profound 
delusion,  and,  having  quoted  freely  already  from  Col. 
Griffith's  experiences  in  San  Quentin,  we  now  ask 
consideration  for  what  others,  who  also  know,  have 
to  say  upon  this  point.  The  first  witness  we  select 
is  the  author  of  "  Life  in  Sing  Sing",  a  work  that  has 
all  the  earmarks  of  strict  impartiality.  The  writer 
was  a  man  of  good  education  and  founded  the  well- 
known  Sing  Sing  paper,  the  Star  of  Hope.  Here  is 
what  he  says : 

"  It  is  generally  thought  that  the  inmates  of  a  prison 
are  a  body  of  lawless  men,  whose  restraint  is  a  matter 
of  the  most  serious  physical  effort;  that  they  are  al- 
ways seething  with  rebellion  and  ready  to  break  out 
in  open  revolt  at  the  slightest  provocation  or  at  the 
first  moment  of  relaxed  discipline  or  watchfulness. 
So  far  opposed  to  the  truth  is  this  that  for  general  or- 
derliness, quietness  and  docility,  there  isn't  a  univer- 
sity in  the  country  that  compares  favorably  with  Sing 
Sing  in  this  respect.  Nor  is  it,  as  you  might  fancy, 
because  the  measures  taken  to  produce  that  condition 
are  effective.     There  isn't  a  tamer  man  in  the  world 


BREAKING  THE  WILL  133 

than  the  average  convict,  and  his  behavior  is  good  in 
spite  of  the  conditions  which  surround  him,  not  be- 
cause of  them.  Whenever  he  breaks  out  against  dis- 
cipHne  or  offers  violent  opposition  to  the  rules  it  is,  if 
not  invariably,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  fault  of 
administration."  And  again,  criticising  the  average 
prisoner,  he  says :  "  The  convicts  are  industrious, 
generally  because  they  are  of  active  temperament. 
They  are  not  quarrelsome,  or  mischief-makers  or  un- 
qualified liars,  as  a  rule,  because  they  don't  see  the  use 
of  it.  Among  the  more  ignorant  profanity  and  ribald 
speech  prevail,  but  they  even  grow  out  of  this  and 
make  very  creditable  attempts  at  certain  small  decen- 
cies. Keep  them  away  from  something  to  steal,  and 
they  form  rather  a  hopeful  lot,  evincing  unsuspected 
virtues." 

They  certainly  don't  get  much  opportunity  to  steal. 
That  is  a  perquisite  peculiar  to  the  officials,  and 
guarded  with  the  most  wakeful  jealousy.  It  is  called, 
however,  "  graft  ",  and  in  the  very  chapter  just  quoted 
from  the  same  author  says :  "  After  a  man  has  been 
a  prison  officer  for  a  little  time  he  loses  his  perception 
of  ownership,  and  particularly  of  that  which  is  owned 
by  the  state.  He  is  not  sure  whether  anything  is  his 
or  belongs  to  the  department,  but  the  inclination  of  his 
belief  is  that  it  is  his.  If  the  article  considered  is  small 
enough  to  carry  away  there  is  no  doubt  about  it,  it  is 
his,  although  the  fact  that  it  is  not  easily  removed 
doesn't  affect  unfavorably  this  decision.  There  are 
old  officers  in  Sing  Sing  prison,  living  in  rented  houses 
in  the  village  which  they  have  furnished  with  tables, 
chairs,  bedsteads,  cutlery  and  tinware  from  the  prison ; 
the  soap  with  which  their  weekly  washing  is  done  is 
similarly  obtained,  and  the  oil  which  they  burn  is  sup- 


134  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

plied  in  the  same  way.  It  doesn't  make  any  differehce 
what  it  is,  they  will  and  do  take  it.  Bread  from  the 
prison  bakery,  meat  for  their  dogs  from  the  con|ict 
table,  if  it  isn't  good  enough  to  eat  themselves,  p^s, 
paper,  pencils,  anything  and  everything;  and  the 
whole  system  of  checks,  being  largely  in  the  hands  of 
convict  clerks,  is,  of  course,  utterly  useless  in  stopping 
these  predatory  abuses."  He  adds  that  "  you  will  find 
the  prison  officers  virtuously  indignant  at  the  issuance 
of  an  order  that  cuts  them  off  from  what  they  regard 
as  their  share  of  the  graft." 

Let  us  not  delude  ourselves  with  the  thought  that 
such  conditions  are  peculiar  to  Sing  Sing ;  with  modi- 
fications they  are  well-nigh  universal,  as  every  intel- 
ligent convict  knows,  but  the  evidence  is  never  to  be 
found  on  the  books.  And  we  have  touched  on  this 
question  that  the  reader  may  reflect  on  the  education 
in  justice  furnished  by  the  state  to  its  temporary  wards 
who  find  themselves  punished,  and  often  with  un- 
speakable cruelty,  for  the  infraction  of  the  pettiest 
rules  by  men  whom  they  themselves  regard  as  chronic 
thieves. 

Let  us  turn  to  another  work  that,  by  its  force  and 
obvious  mastery  of  detail,  made,  in  1908,  an  immense 
impression  on  the  public.  In  "  9009  "  Messrs.  Hop- 
per and  Bechdolt  have  given  to  the  world  what  is 
probably  the  most  realistic  picture  yet  published  of 
life  in  a  penitentiary.  The  development  of  John  Col- 
1ms'  character  turns  almost  entirely  on  his  desperate 
ettorts  to  follow  the  sheriff's  advice  —  "  Keep  to  your- 
self and  hang  on  to  your  good  time ;  hang  on  to  your 
copper."  This  is  his  description  of  his  first  night  in 
the  cell: 


BREAKING  THE  WILL  .     I35 

"  He  remained  silent,  bent  over,  thinking,  a  long 
time.  And  then,  solemnly,  almost  with  affection,  '  My 
copper',  he  said  softly.  He  would  work  for  it,  he 
would  treasure  it,  his  good  time,  his  copper.  There 
were  rules  in  this  place ;  he  would  keep  them.  There 
was  work;  he  would  work.  He  remembered  the 
words  of  the  garotter  and  of  the  sheriff;  he  would 
keep  to  himself,  he  would  obey,  he  would  do  anything 
they  told  him.  '  Oh,  I'll  be  good',  he  said  aloud, 
whimsically ;  '  I'll  be  good,  all  right'."  And  as  you 
follow  the  unfolding  of  the  plot  you  see  how  a  single 
guard  was  able  to  make  that  fixed  resolution  impos- 
sible of  fulfillment. 

You  may  say  this  is  fiction,  but  realistic  fiction, 
written  by  men  of  talent  who  have  made  a  special 
study  of  their  subject,  often  gives  the  most  accurate 
of  pictures.  And  in  the  absence  of  direct  evidence  to 
the  contrary  all  common  sense  will  teach  us  that  the 
utterly  helpless  convict  is  not  likely  to  rebel,  but  is 
most  likely  to  use  every  effort  to  obtain  the  good 
marks  that  will  shorten  materially  the  term  of  his  im- 
prisonment. 

It  is  the  tendency  of  all  power  to  encroach  on  the 
rights  of  the  individual  and,  by  multiplication  of  rules, 
magnify  its  oflfice.  The  more  helpless  the  individual 
and  the  more  ignorant  the  mistrained  ofificial  the  more 
pronounced  will  be  this  tendency.  Of  this  prison  life 
affords  the  most  glaring  illustration,  for  time  hangs 
heavy  and  the  devising  of  new  regulations  gives  an 
outlet  for  pent-up  energies.  Barry,  who  was  sent  by 
the  Cosmopolitan  to  investigate  the  southern  convict 
camps,  found  guards  who  flogged  as  a  relief  to  the 
monotony  of  their  uneventful  life.     Had  he  investi- 


136  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

gated  certain  of  our  penitentiaries  he  might  have  made 
similar  comment.  (' 

A  convict  innocently  passes  to  another  a  piece  of 
bread  and  he  is  severely  "  paddled".  Another  pro- 
poses to  exchange  his  tobacco,  for  which  he  has  no 
use,  for  a  chair  of  which  he  stands  in  need,  and  it  is 
treated  as  a  high  offense. 

And  so  one  could  go  through  the  history  of  prison 
after  prison,  finding  labyrinths  of  petty  regulations 
invented  to  give  excuse  for  punishment,  deprive  the 
men  of  the  "  good  time  "  to  which  they  are  entitled 
and  prolong  the  term  during  which  they  must  be  sup- 
ported out  of  the  pockets  of  the  public. 

There  is,  however,  one  good  reason  for  this  multi- 
plication of  rules  —  rules  so  childishly  ridiculous  that 
they  should  be  whirled  out  of  court  with  a  Gargantuan 
peal  of  laughter.  It  is  expressed  in  rough  but  straight 
language  by  the  author  of  "  Thirteen  Years  in  the 
Oregon  penitentiary  ",  as  follows :  "  Now  I  will  give 
a  little  sidelight  on  the  prison  politician  and  prison 
politics.  The  prison  politicians  are  the  guards,  and 
they  are  all  the  time  scheming  and  plotting  and  plan- 
ning how  they  can  hold  their  jobs.  The  first  thing 
they  will  tell  a  visitor  is  what  a  hard  lot  of  men  they 
have  to  deal  with.  They  will  tell  visitors  that  the  life 
oi  a  guard  is  constantly  in  danger,  and  that  they  prac- 
tically carry  their  life  in  their  hands.  Did  the  visitor 
ever  stop  and  take  time  to  think  that  if  he  himself  was 
a  convict  the  prison  politicians  would  be  telling  some 
other  visitor  the  same  thing  about  him?  The  prison 
politicians  want  the  governor  and  superintendent  to 
believe  that  the  convicts  are  a  bad  lot,  so  the  guards 
will  have  the  run  of  the  penitentiary  to  suit  themselves 
and  so  the  governor  will  take  no  notice  of  what  a  con- 


BREAKING  THE  WILL  137 

vict  says  when  he  makes  his  complaint."  We  submit 
the  passage  as  it  stands  to  the  common  sense  of  our 
readers. 

Lest  it  be  thought  that  we  are  over-stating  the  case 
we  submit  a  recent  extract  from  the  vohiminous  rules 
in  force,  not  in  a  state  institution,  but  in  the  United 
States  penitentiary  at  Fort  Leavenworth,  Kansas,  un- 
der the  management  of  an  advanced  prison  reformer, 
Maj.  R.  W.  McClaJghrey,  who,  of  course,  must  be 
regarded  as  the  mere  administrator  of  a  system  he  had 
no  hand  in  creating.  The  extract  deals  only  with  dis- 
cipline at  meals,  but  the  reader  who  cannot  form  a 
mental  picture  of  the  scene  implied  must  be  indeed 
lacking  in  imagination. 

"  12.  On  entering  the  dining-room  take  your  seat 
promptly — position  erect  —  arms  folded,  with  eyes 
to  the  front  until  the  signal  is  given  to  commence 
eating. 

"  13.  Strict  silence  must  be  observed  during  the 
meal.  Staring  at  visitors,  talking  and  laughing,  fool- 
ing or  gazing  about  the  room  are  strictly  forbidden. 

"  14.  Eating  or  drinking  before  or  after  the  bell 
sounds,  using  vinegar  in  your  drinking  water,  or  put- 
ting meat  on  the  table  are  prohibited. 

"  15.  Should  you  desire  additional  food,  make  your 
wants  known  to  the  waiters  in  the  following  manner: 
If  you  want  bread,  hold  up  your  right  hand;  coffee 
or  water,  hold  up  your  cup ;  meat,  hold  up  your  fork ; 
soup,  hold  up  your  spoon;  vegetables,  hold  up  your 
knife.  If  you  desire  to  speak  to  an  officer  about  food 
or  service  in  the  dining  hall,  hold  up  your  left  hand. 
Wasting  food  in  any  form  will  not  be  tolerated.  You 
must  not  ask  for  or  allow  the  waiter  to  place  more 
food  on  your  plate  than  you  can  eat.     When  through 


138 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

with  meal  leave  pieces  of  bread  on  left  side  of  plate. 
Crusts  and  small  pieces  of  bread  must  not  be  left  on 
your  plate. 

"17.  After  finishing  your  meal  place  knife,  fork 
and  spoon  on  right  side  of  plate.  Sit  erect,  with  arms 
folded.  When  the  signal  is  given  to  arise,  drop  hands 
to  your  side.  At  the  second  signal  march  out  and  to 
your  place  in  line  in  a  prompt,  quiet  and  orderly  man- 
ner. 

Men  fight  shy  nowadays  of  enlisting  in  the  army, 
the  constant  obedience  to  autocratic  orders  being  alien 
to  that  larger  freedom  which  a  society  gradually 
evolving  from  militarism  has  acquired.  And  it  is  pro- 
verbial that  the  discharged  soldier  is  seldom  capable 
of  holding  his  own  in  other  occupations,  having  ac- 
quired unconsciously  the  habit  of  waiting  for  the  word 
of  command,  rather  than  of  thinking  for  himself.  But 
even  with  the  soldier  meal  time  is  a  period  of  jollity 
and  relaxation.  In  the  federal  prison,  as  in  other  pen- 
itentiaries, men  march  to  their  meals  under  the  shadow 
of  guns  and  flanked  by  armed  guards ;  devour  their 
food  in  silence,  and  may  think  themselves  lucky  if  they 
escape  punishment  for  infraction  of  rules  so  minute 
that  they  constitute  in  themselves  a  reign  of  terror. 

What  is  the  object,  and  what  is  the  net  result  of 
all  these  rules,  these  punishments  and  torturings? 
Simply  to  bring  about  the  very  condition  that  the  most 
ordinary  common  sense  should  make  us  most  anxious 
to  avoid.  Granted  that  the  public  takes  little  interest 
in  the  convict's  conduct  during  detention,  it  is  never- 
theless deeply  concerned  as  to  his  behavior  after  re- 
lease. It  hopes  most  sincerely  that  henceforth  he  will 
behave  himself.     When   it   stops   to   think   it   admits 


BREAKING  THE  WILL  139 

freely  that  there  are  lions  in  the  path;  that  the  man 
will  be  without  money,  and  with  few,  if  any,  friends; 
that  his  description  will  have  been  sent  the  police 
rounds,  and  that  a  small  army  of  his  fellow-beings 
will  be  professionally  and  financially  interested  in  keep- 
ing close  tab  on  him  and  taking  advantage  of  his  first 
fall  from  grace.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  public 
considers  that  he  must  have  learned  a  valuable  lesson, 
and  it  fondly  hopes  that  during  the  years  of  his  im- 
prisonment he  may  have  acquired  habits  that  will  guide 
his  feet  safely  in  the  paths  of  virtue.  Profound  delu- 
sion !  Not  merely  have  you  been  tutoring  him  in  vice, 
but  you  have  been  insistently  producing,  day  by  day 
and  hour  by  hour,  that  very  condition  of  moral  and 
physical  helplessness  which  renders  relapse  into  crime 
a  certainty. 

Consider  what  is  wanted,  what  is  truly  indispen- 
sable, in  this  rough-and-tumble  struggle  for  existence. 
If  a  man  is  to  keep  his  head  above  the  water  he  must 
be  more  than  honest  or  well  meaning;  he  must  be 
capable.  He  is  heavily  handicapped  if  he  has  not  some 
special  occupation,  but  even  if  he  has,  other  qualifica 
tions  are  essential.  Without  some  capacity  of  self- 
assertion  he  most  assuredly  will  be  driven  to  the  wall 
in  the  universal  jostle.  Not  an  hour  will  pass  without 
calling  on  him  for  some  exercise  of  will  power;  at 
every  step  he  will  be  required  to  use  his  judgment  and 
discriminate.  Our  civilization  is,  at  least,  partially 
free  and  men  are  expected  to  do  things  for  themselves. 

In  reality  how  have  we  fitted  the  discharged  convict 
to  face  the  most  terrifying  problem  that  can  confront 
a  human  being —  that  of  the  marked  Ishmaelite,  with- 
out money  and  without  a  job?     Have  we  taught  him 


140  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

a  money-making  trade  ?  In  very,  very  few  cases,  for, 
rightly  or  wrongly,  organized  labor  has  objected 
strongly  to  his  being  employed  in  the  production  of 
goods  that  are  likely  to  come  into  competition  with 
its  own  output.  Consequently  the  convict  is  employed 
at  unskilled  occupations  or  at  such  as  give  him  no 
training  whatever  for  the  work  he  must  take  up  when 
he  regains  his  freedom.  And  even  these  useless  tasks 
he  performs,  as  he  devours  his  meals,  in  silence,  with 
armed  men  over  him  and  under  the  orders  of  keepers 
who  can  at  any  moment  inflict  practically  what  punish- 
ment they  please.  Every  minute  of  his  waking  hours 
he  is  the  subject  of  autocratic  commands.  Then,  with 
a  will  thus  paralyzed,  a  body  weakened  by  confinement 
and  bad  food,  and  in  utter  ignorance  of  what  has  been 
transpiring  in  the  outside  world  during  his  term  of 
immurement,  he  is  turned  out  to  hold  his  own  in  the 
battle  for  bread. 

Tie  up  a  man's  arm  for  a  year  and  it  becomes  use- 
less. Tie  up  a  man's  will  for  a  similar  period  and  it 
degenerates  to  the  mere  shadow  of  its  former  self. 
Yet  the  entire  scheme  of  prison  management,  as  it  has 
been  hitherto  and  is  today  with  a  few  enlightened  ex- 
ceptions, has  massed  itself  on  the  attainment  of  one 
point  —  the  breaking  of  the  inmate's  will.  On  this  all 
the  discipline,  the  despotic  powers  conferred  on  offi- 
cials, the  punishment  and  the  tortures  center.  "  You  ", 
cried  the  irate  warden  to  a  prisoner  before  him  on 
some  trivial  offense,  "  you,  damn  you !  You  have  a 
will  of  your  own.  Well,  I'll  have  no  wills  here  ex- 
cept my  own.  I'll  tame  you,  damn  you,  I'll  tame  you. 
If  you  were  a  tiger  I'd  tame  you."  And  he  adds: 
"  They  did  tame  him,  and  he  wasn't  very  wild,  so 


BREAKING  THE  WILL  141 

far  as  I  could  see;  and  when  they  had  him  really 
tamed  he  was  in  Dannemora  insane  asylum,  where  he 
will  die  a  raging  maniac."  We  quote  again  from 
"  Life  in  Sing  Sing  ",  although  conditions  there  have 
been  mild  as  compared  with  those  which  have  pre- 
vailed in  many  southern  and  western  penitentiaries. 

All  corporal  punishment  has  the  effect  of  subjecting 
the  individual  to  intense  humiliation,  thereby  lower- 
ing his  self-respect  and  robbing  him  of  self-confidence. 
We  submit  the  following  passage  from  "  Facts  About 
Flogging  ",  by  Joseph  Collinson,  secretary  of  the  Crim- 
inal Law  and  Prison  Commission,  Humanitarian 
League  (England)  as  full  of  suggestion :  "  The 
lashed  and  hacked  prisoner  has  no  future.  He  is  no 
longer  a  man ;  he  has  been  degraded  to  a  brute,  and  for 
the  rest  of  his  life  alternates  between  ticket-of-leave 
and  prison.  He  is  alive  and  yet  dead.  When  you 
have  broken  the  spirit  of  a  criminal,  lacerated  his  flesh 
as  far  as  human  endurance  is  possible  (gauged  by  the 
medical  men  in  attendance),  be  sure  of  one  thing: 
You  will  have  to  support  that  man,  in  and  out  of 
prison,  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  Let  the  advocates  of 
the  '  cat '  note  that  fact.  To  lacerate  ^nd  smash  up, 
morally  and  physically,  the  criminal  is  —  apart  from 
all  questions  of  humanity  —  a  somewhat  expensive 
luxury  for  the  already  overburdened  people  of  this 
country." 

Nevertheless  in  the  Missouri  state  penitentiary  at 
Jefferson  City  the  whipping  post  is  resorted  to  con- 
stantly for  the  disciplining  of  refractory  prisoners, 
and  the  warden  vehemently  defends  its  use.  In 
Hampton's  Magazine  for  October,  1909,  Charles  Ed- 
ward Russell  quotes  him  as  follows :     "  In  my  opin- 


142  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

ion,  it  is  absolutely  necessary.  You  cannot  manage 
2O0O  men  of  the  character  of  our  convicts  without 
corporal  punishment.  Some  men  cannot  be  governed 
by  kindness  and  recognize  only  the  power  of  a  blow ; 
if  we  used  milk-and-water  methods  we  should  have  a 
mutiny  every  week.  I  do  not  know  of  any  punish- 
ment more  effectual  than  the  whipping  post.  If  you 
have  a  bad  man  you  must  conquer  him,  and  if  society 
objects  to  the  means  employed,  society  should  bear  in 
mind  the  character  of  the  convict." 

Mr.  Russell  describes  the  floggings,  and  adds  re- 
flections that,  according  to  our  view,  aptly  summarize 
the  general  situation.  He  says :  "  At  the  whipping 
post  in  this  prison  the  victim  is  fastened  to  a  wooden 
pillar,  his  hands  and  feet  are  manacled  and  the  lash 
is  applied  to  his  bare  back.  The  prison  officers  say 
that  the  number  of  lashes  does  not  exceed  fifteen  and 
that  the  whip  is  used  only  when  solitary  confinement 
fails  to  subdue  the  convict.  It  sounds  to  the  last  de- 
gree barbarous  and  horrible,  but  I  do  not  know  that 
it  is  worse  than  the  sanded  paddle  of  Columbus,  and 
probably  it  is  not  so  painful  or  dangerous  as  the  water 
cure.  As  the  old  guard  said,  '  It  brings  them  round '. 
But  do  you  suppose  a  man  can  he  beaten  like  this  and 
not  be  imbruted  ?  According  to  the  old  theory  of  the 
prison  the  infinite  degradation  that  pertains  to  all 
these  things,  to  whippings,  beatings,  bull  rings,  and 
water  cures,  is  of  no  moment  because  the  dominating 
purpose  is  to  inflict  upon  the  wrongdoer  all  possible 
pain  and  to  take  the  chances  as  to  the  results.  If  the 
pain  and  the  degradation  fill  his  heart  with  a  fierce 
sense  of  injustice  and  a  burning  desire  for  revenge 
upon  all  society,  no  matter;  and  if  we  steal  his  labor 


THE   WHIPPING   POST. 

Flogging  Is   still  a  frequent  form  of    "dicipline."     The  warden   of 

Jefferson  City,  Mo.,  penitentiary  strongly  advocates  it. 

Se«  page  141. 


144  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

and  so  teach  him  the  handiest  method  of  revenge,  no 
matter;  and  if  we  harden  him  until  he  becomes  in- 
sensible to  everything  but  his  revenge,  no  matter. 
The  great  thing  is  to  cause  him  pain.  That  is  it  — 
pain;  he  has  stumbled  in  the  path  and  now  we  must 
cause  him  pain." 

It  may  be  added  that  contract  labor  prevails  at  Jef- 
ferson City,  the  convicts  being  farmed  out  to  con- 
tractors at  sixty  cents  a  day.  Such  arrangements  in- 
variably lead  to  gross  over-work  and  cruel  punish- 
ment. 

In  short,  prison  regime  as  it  exists  almost  uni- 
versally today  has  for  its  prime  object  not  the  develop- 
ment of  the  latent  powers  of  man,  who  is  the  triumph 
of  all  evolution,  but  his  reduction  to  the  primitive  type 
of  invertebrate  mollusc  —  a  crime  against  nature  so 
colossal  that  language  is  incapable  of  supplying  the 
terms  that  will  enable  us  to  measure  it.  And.  so 
thoroughly  is  this  deadly  work  performed  —  under  the 
teachings  of  the  deterrent  philosophy  —  that  those  who 
have  had  experience  in  aiding  discharged  convicts  will 
tell  you  they  are  often  so  unstrung  and  bewildered  by 
the  roar  and  bustle  of  the  great  industrial  centers,  to 
which  they  return  in  search  of  work,  that  they  scarce- 
ly dare  to  venture  across  the  street  unaided.  No  won- 
der they  relapse  into  crime,  as  the  easiest  way  of  pre- 
serving life,  and  remain  permanent  public  charges. 

The  problem  of  crime  is  to  a  large  extent  the  prob- 
lem of  helplessness,  and,  poisoned  by  the  fallacies  of 
our  deterrent  philosophy,  our  prison  system  is  a  gigan- 
tic conspiracy  to  emphasize  the  very  evil  that  lies  at 
the  root  of  this  huge  social  trouble. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

DETERRENCE  BY  THE  POLICE 

The  policy  of  deterrence  is  by  no  means  confined 
to  disciplining,  punishing  and  torturing  the  convicted 
prisoner.  It  permeates  the  entire  attitude  of  the  po- 
Hce  toward  crime,  actual  or  suspected,  and  indeed 
their  attitude  toward  the  population  at  large,  whose 
servants  they  are  supposed  to  be.  It  is  with  this 
phase  of  the  philosophy  of  deterrence  that  the  present 
chapter  will  deal.  We  shall  consider  here,  in  partic- 
ular, the  subjects  of  illegal  arrests,  the  administration 
of  the  "  third  degree  "  and  other  arbitrary  acts  de- 
fended by  many  of  the  conservative  on  the  plea  that 
they  tend  to  make  the  way  of  the  transgressor  hard. 

Reference  was  made  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  book 
to  an  article  on  "  The  London  police  from  a  New 
York  point  of  view",  by  William  McAdoo,  former 
police  commissioner  for  the  city  of  New  York.  His 
comments  and  conclusions  are  in  accord  with  much 
that  has  been  written  elsewhere,  and  his  article  is  se- 
lected for  notice  simply  because  he  writes  with  the 
authority  of  an  expert  and  is  obviously  anxious  to 
avoid  unjust  reflections  on  the  New  York  force  with 
which  his  own  career  had  been  so  intimately  con- 
nected. Nevertheless  we  venture  the  assertion  that 
no  American  can  read  the  comparisons  he  draws  with- 
out feeling  that  they  are  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the 
London  police  and  enormously  to  the  discredit  of 
those  in  New  York. 


146  CRIME  AND  CRIAIINALS 

After  stating  that  the  London  policeman's  charac- 
ter for  honesty  stands  unquestioned  even  by  the  pro- 
fessional criminal  class  Mr.  McAdoo  proceeds  to  a 
consideration  of  the  London  police  courts,  which  evi- 
dently made  a  deep  impression  on  him.  He  notes  the 
care  with  which  defendants  are  cautioned  as  to  their 
legal  rights,  and  tells  us  that  he  was  "  very  much  as- 
tonished at  the  outcome  of  the  day's  work ;  to  see  the 
number  of  acquittals,  where,  I  am  sure,  in  New  York 
the  same  people  would  have  been  convicted.  In  other 
words,  the  benefit  of  the  reasonable  doubt  was  always 
scrupulously  given  in  such  cases,  even  where  the  de- 
fendant had  a  grim  criminal  record,  and  the  sentences 
dealt  out  were  a  great  deal  less  severe  than  in  New 
York ;  but  I  was  told  that  they  were  certain,  that  de- 
lays and  appeals  were  almost  unknown,  and  that  in 
almost  every  case  the  sentence  of  the  court  would  be 
confirmed  on  appeal,  if  allowed  as  a  matter  of  grace." 
He  adds  that  "  the  police  did  not  grumble  when  the 
defendants  were  acquitted,  and  no  side  remarks  of 
any  kind  were  indulged  in  ",  and  he  concludes  with 
the  following  reflections  which  seem  to  us  worthy  of 
careful  consideration: 

"  A  number  of  mysterious  crimes,  it  is  true,  go  un- 
detected in  London  as  in  New  York,  and  there  are 
plenty  of  professional  criminals  in  both  cities,  with 
this  exception,  that  in  New  York  the  carrying  of  pis- 
tols and  other  deadly  weapons  is  far  more  common 
than  in  any  city  in  Europe.  The  general  detective 
idea  in  Scotland  Yard  in  a  given  case  is  quite  similar 
to  that  prevailing  here,  except  that  Scotland  Yard  has 
sole  control  of  the  case  and  district  authorities  do  not 
clash  with  them ;  and  also  with  the  strong  exception 


DETERRENCE  BY  THE  POLICE  147 

that  the  methods  used  in  New  York  would  not  be  tol- 
erated for  a  moment  under  law  as  enforced  there  in 
the  case  of  forcible  entrance  into  houses,  wholesale 
arrests  on  suspicion,  the  so-called  *  third  degree ' 
and  photographing  before  conviction,  together  with 
the  use  of  violence  on  the  person,  except  in  strict  self- 
defense." 

Mr.  McAdoo  was  greatly  struck  with  the  fact  that 
in  London  the  police  are  confined  strictly  to  the  legal 
limits  of  their  authority,  and  particularly  in  the  mat- 
ter of  free  speech  and  assembly,  his  remark  on  that 
head  being  that  "  the  whole  policy,  as  far  as  London 
is  concerned,  seems  to  be  to  induce  rather  than  to  sup- 
press free  speech  ".  He  sums  up  the  situation  in  Lon- 
don thus :  "  I  should  say,  however,  on  the  whole, 
that  as  regards  gambling,  the  social  evil,  places 
licensed  for  the  sale  of  drink,  and  the  freedom  of  the 
people  on  the  streets,  parks  and  other  public  places, 
there  is  a  very  large  degree  of  personal  liberty,  and 
the  security  of  the  citizen  and  his  home  are  most  care- 
fully and  rigorously  guarded  by  the  law.  .  .  . 
This  regard  for  the  security  of  persons  is  shown  in 
the  treatment  of  prisoners  arrested  by  the  police.  A 
wounded  prisoner  puts  the  policeman  on  the  de- 
fensive," 

We  desire  specially  to  emphasize  the  last  two  sen- 
tences in  connection  with  the  subject  of  illegal  arrests, 
and  to  compare  Mr.  McAdoo's  summary  of  conditions 
in  London  with  the  criticism  passed  on  the  New  York 
police  by  another  former  New  York  City  police  com- 
missioner in  an  article  published  in  the  North  Amer- 
ican Review,  to  which  also  we  referred  in  the  first 
chapter  of  this  book.     Mr.  Moss  wrote  shortly  after 


148  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

the  Lexow  investigation  had  disclosed  an  appalling 
mass  of  corruption,  and,  after  showing  how  vast  was 
the  system  of  blackmail  and  extortion  that  had  been 
uncovered,  he  uses  these  words  as  descriptive  of  the 
brutal  and  illegal  methods  in  use :  "  For  three  years 
there  has  been  through  the  courts  and  the  streets  a 
dreary  procession  of  citizens  with  broken  heads  and 
bruised  bodies,  against  few  of  whom  was  violence 
needed  to  effect  an  arrest.  Many  of  them  had  done 
nothing  to  deserve  arrest.  In  a  majority  of  such 
cases  no  complaint  is  made.  If  the  victim  complains 
his  charge  is  generally  dismissed.  The  police  are 
practically  above  the  law." 

That  these  conditions  are  not  peculiar  to  New  York 
alone  is  notorious,  and  we  cite  the  case  of  Chicago, 
the  second  largest  city  in  the  country,  using  the  fig- 
ures given  in  his  "  Live  Questions  "  by  the  late  John 
P.  Altgeld,  formerly  governor  of  Illinois.  As  the  re- 
sult of  a  careful  statistical  investigation  of  criminal 
conditions  in  Chicago  he  states  that  in  1888  the  police 
arrested  and  carried  to  the  lock-up  50,432  persons, 
nearly  9000  of  whom  were  under  twenty  years  of  age 
and  a  little  over  30,000  of  whom  were  American  born. 
He  shows  further  that  nearly  one-third  of  the  num- 
ber were  discharged,  it  not  being  proved  that  they 
had  violated  any  law  or  ordinance,  and  that,  out  of 
the  whole  number  arrested,  only  2192  were  held  over 
on  criminal  charges.  Only  2192  held  over  out  of  a 
total  of  50,432  arrests! 

Commenting  on  the  above  figures  Mr.  Altgeld  asks : 
"  Bearing  in  mind  that  those  arrested  were  young ; 
that  they  came  from  the  poorer  classes,  from  those 
who   are   already   fighting   an   unequal    fight   in    the 


DETERRENCE  BY  THE  POLICE  149 

struggle  for  existence,  I  ask  you  what  effect  do  you 
suppose  the  act  of  arresting  them  upon  the  street, 
possibly  clubbing  them,  then  marching  them  to  the 
lock-up  and  shoving  them  into  a  cell  —  what  effect 
did  all  this  have  upon  the  15,000  who  were  not  shown 
to  have  been  guilty  of  any  offense ;  who  had  violated 
neither  law  of  God  nor  statutes  of  man  ?  " 

As  a  rule  our  quotations  are  drawn  from  the  most 
recent  writings,  but  in  this  case  we  have  gone  back 
twenty-one  years  because  the  figures  given  by  Gov. 
Altgeld  were  compiled  with  special  care,  and  Chi- 
cago still  has  the  reputation  of  pursuing  remorse- 
lessly the  policy  of  deterrence,  although  a  decidedly 
mitigating  influence  has  been  introduced  of  late  by 
the  methods  introduced  in  the  municipal  court  by 
Judge  Cleland,  to  which  we  shall  do  full  justice  in  a 
later  chapter.  That  the  deterrent  policy  has  been 
barren  of  results  is  shown  by  a  recent  statement  made 
by  the  city  attorney  to  the  effect  that  a  burglary  was 
committed  within  the  city  limits  every  three  hours,  a 
hold-up  every  six  hours,  while  every  day  brought 
forth  its  murder  and  suicide  —  an  appalling  record ! 

What  a  glaring  light  is  thrown  on  this  subject  of 
illegal  arrests  by  the  following  exclusive  dispatch 
which  we  clip  from  the  Los  Angeles  Times  of  Feb. 
19,  1909 1  "  Kansas  City,  Feb.  19.  —  A  census  of 
the  county  jail,  completed  today  under  instructions 
of  Judge  Latchaw,  shows  seventy-six  prisoners  who 
had  become  lost  to  the  world.  There  are  absolutely 
no  charges  or  informations  on  file  against  any  of  these 
men,  twenty  of  whom  have  been  in  confinement  from 
four  to  eight  months.  One  prisoner,  Edward  Wanga- 
man  of  Pittsburgh,  had  been  forgotten   for  thirteen 


150 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

months.  Wangaman  pleaded  guilty  to  a  minor 
charge  thirteen  months  ago,  but  sentence  was  never 
imposed  upon  him.  Wangaman  says  that  Judge 
Wallace  told  him  he  would  release  him  on  parole  if 
he  would  give  bond.     The  prisoner  had  no  friends." 

As  against  these  methods  let  us  place  the  statement 
of  the  chief  of  police  of  Cleveland,  O.,  Frederick 
Kohler,  made  at  the  convention  of  chiefs  of  police  in 
June,  1909.  Mr.  Kohler  told  his  colleagues  that,  as 
a  result  of  the  "  golden-rule  "  plan  he  started  less  than 
two  years  ago,  the  1908  record  showed  20,333  ^^ss 
arrests  than  did  that  of  1907;  surely  an  eloquent  com- 
ment on  the  sum  of  unnecessary  apprehensions  made 
under  the  previous  administration !  He  further  gives 
as  among  the  six  rules  he  drew  up  for  the  guidance 
of  his  force  these  —  that  officers  were  to  use  their 
kindly  efforts  in  easing  the  friction  and  ill-temper  be- 
tween man  and  man,  wherever  and  whenever  it  made 
itself  manifest ;  and  that  he  who  managed  the  offender 
with  the  least  display  of  authority  would  be  consid- 
ered the  best  officer.  Which  is,  in  fact,  the  tradition 
that  governs  the  entire  London  police  force. 

It  is  beyond  all  question,  therefore,  that  throughout 
the  United  States  there  is  an  immense  amount  of  ar- 
resting for  which  no  adequate  reason  can  be  shown, 
and  when  we  pass  to  a  consideration  of  the  fee  system 
we  shall  show  that  the  very  livelihood  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  officers  of  the  law  depends  on  the  number  they 
can  drag  to  jail  —  a  system  that  has  as  its  natural 
echo  the  fact  that  with  far  too  many  chiefs  of  police 
the  merit  of  their  subordinates  is  gauged  by  the  ac- 
tivity exhibited  in  effecting  arrests.     Inevitably  this 


DETERRENCE  BY  THE  POLICE  iSi 


must  lead  to  the  use  of  greater  and  greater  license 
on  the  part  of  the  police;  and  this  license  is  now  be- 
ginning to  be  seriously  questioned. 

As  one  of  the  results  of  the  Lexow  investigation 
New  York  showed  itself  greatly  concerned  on  the 
subject  of  illegal  arrests,  and  there  was  much  discus- 
sion as  to  the  actual  powers  conferred  on  the  police. 
The  statement  of  Sir  James  Fitz-James  Stephen,  one 
of  the  ablest  jurists  England  has  produced  —  but  as 
a  judge  far  from  lenient  toward  criminals  —  was  gen- 
erally accepted  by  lawyers  as  giving  the  rule  for  the 
police  in  this  country,  as  throughout  the  British  em- 
pire. It  is  as  follows :  "  The  police  in  their  different 
grades  are  no  doubt  officers  appointed  by  the  law  for 
the  purpose  of  arresting  criminals,  but  they  possess 
for  this  purpose  no  powers  which  are  not  also  pos- 
sessed by  private  persons.  A  policeman  has  no  other 
right  as  to  asking  questions  or  compelling  the  attend- 
ance of  witnesses  than  a  private  person  has."  And 
while  this  discussion  was  in  progress  Justice  William 
J.  Gay  nor,  recently  elected  mayor  of  New  York,  but 
then  of  the  supreme  court  of  the  state  of  New  York, 
published  in  the  North  American  Review  —  in 
1903  —  an  article  on  "  Lawlessness  of  the  Police  in 
New  York  ",  in  the  course  of  which  he  said :  "  One 
recent  instance  suffices  to  show  the  false  idea  of  the 
right  and  power  to  arrest  and  imprison  without  a 
warrant  which  exists  in  the  police  department  of  the 
city  of  New  York.  In  October  last  a  police  captain 
came  into  a  magistrate's  court  with  a  large  batch  of 
prisoners,  whom  he  had  arrested  and  locked  up  over 
night  without  warrant.  He  told  the  magistrate  that 
he  wanted  them  all  committed  to  prison  until  after 

6 


152  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

election.  The  magistrate  asked  what  charge  of  a 
criminal  offense  he  made  against  them,  and  the  re- 
sponse was  that  he  made  none,  but  that  he  feared  they 
would  register  and  vote  if  not  locked  up.  Being 
asked  if  there  was  anyone  to  make  any  charge  against 
them,  he  said  '  No.'  The  magistrate  said  that  he  had 
no  right  to  commit  any  one  except  on  a  charge  of 
some  criminal  offense  made  on  oath,  and  discharged 
the  prisoners.  Can  any  one  imagine  such  an  occur- 
rence in  England,  or,  for  that  matter,  anywhere  out- 
side of  the  city  of  New  York  ?  " 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  New  York  is  the  sec- 
ond largest  city  in  the  world,  and  that  examples  set 
there  are  quickly  followed  by  the  authorities  in  less 
important  centers. 

The  high-handed  methods  of  the  New  York  police 
have  been  made  again,  and  within  the  past  few 
months,  the  subject  of  Justice  Gaynor's  attack,  the 
rupture  between  Police  Commissioner  Bingham  and 
Mayor  McLellan,  which  led  to  the  former's  sudden 
removal  from  ofHce,  having  followed  charges  made  by 
Mr.  Gaynor,  who  insisted  on  the  removal  of  George 
Duffy's  picture  from  the  rogue's  gallery,  alleging  that 
the  boy  was  being  hounded  by  the  police  and  that  he 
had  not  been  proved  guilty  of  any  offense.  It  may  be 
noted  that  Mr.  McAdoo  made  a  special  note  of  the 
fact  that  photographing  before  conviction  was  pro- 
hibited in  London.  But  for  the  moment  we  leave 
New  York  and  pass  to  other  sections  of  the  country, 
recent  events  having  caused  widespread  criticism  of 
the  police  both  in  the  matter  of  making  arrests  and 
their  treatment  of  the  arrested. 


DETERRENCE  BY  THE  POLICE 153 

In  Los  Angeles,  where  these  Hnes  are  written,  as 
recently  as  July,  1909,  complaints  that  defenseless 
prisoners  in  the  city  jail  were  "  man-handled "  and 
otherwise  ill-treated  drew  ffom  the  chief  of  police  an 
assurance  that  such  methods  and  the  administration 
of  the  "  third  degree  "  would  not  be  permitted ;  but 
the  persecution  to  which  Mrs,  Laura  Sim,  wrongfully 
suspected  of  having  tried  to  murder  Mrs.  Staehle, 
claims  to  have  been  subjected  discounts  considerably 
the  worth  of  that  assurance.  According  to  her  state- 
ment, published  October  22,  1909,  she  was  arrested 
Tuesday  afternoon,  searched,  her  watch  and  all  her  be- 
longings taken  from  her,  thrown  into  a  dark  cell  and 
left  there  until  the  following  afternoon,  when  she  was 
taken  again  to  the  detectives'  ofifice.  Her  account 
continues :  "  They  said,  '  Well,  if  this  woman  dies 
you  can  just  feel  the  noose  around  your  neck.  In  any 
case  we've  got  you  and  we're  going  to  send  you  up 
for  this.'  No  matter  how  many  times  they  asked  me 
to  repeat  my  story  I  did  not  change.  They  said  the 
prints  on  the  window  were  the  same  as  mine.  I 
reached  out  my  hands  and  said :  '  Here,  take  as 
many  imprints  as  you  like.  These  hands  are  clean  of 
crime.*  They  called  up  some  one  on  the  'phone,  and 
then  said  that  my  imprints  had  been  found  to  be  ex- 
actly the  same  as  those  on  the  window.  When  they 
saw  that  I  did  not  falter  they  accused  me  of  caring  for 
Mr.  Staehle.  They  were  absolutely  devoted  to  each 
other  and  it  did  my  heart  good  to  see  it.  They  ac- 
cused me  of  intimacy  with  Mr.  Staehle.  I  said,  '  No. 
I  am  a  lady  and  until  you  can  prove  me  other  than 
one  you  will  please  treat  me  as  such.'  Thursday 
afternoon  they  took  all  kinds  of  imprints  of  my  hand 


154  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


with  ink,  with  powder  and  with  a  black  powder. 
They  accused  me  over  and  over  of  stabbing  my 
friend.  They  again  accused  me  of  intimacy  with  Mr. 
Staehle.  .  .  ,  When  they  found  they  could  not 
shake  my  story  they  released  me.  It  was  about  5 
o'clock  Thursday  evening.  They  said :  '  We  have 
conducted  this  case  as  carefully  and  as  delicately  as 
we  could.  We  do  not  want  you  to  be  put  to  any  un- 
necessary notoriety.  There  is  a  crowd  of  newspaper 
men  outside.  Walk  between  us  and  duck  your  head, 
so  that  they  cannot  get  your  picture.'  " 

For  a  full  and  earnest  discussion  of  the  entire  ques- 
tion, however,  one  cannot  go  to  a  better  place  than 
St.  Louis,  Mo.  There  the  efforts  of  the  police  to  ob- 
tain from  a  stenographer  information  as  to  the  where- 
abouts of  her  employer,  who  had  absconded,  aroused 
a  storm  of  protest.  The  St.  Louis  Post-Dispatch,  the 
Republic,  the  Mirror,  former  Governor  Johnson  and 
others  expressed  themselves  with  great  vigor,  and  as 
Mr.  Johnson  has  been  for  some  fifty  years  one  of  the 
most  noted  criminal  lawyers  in  the  west  we  quote  him 
at  some  length,  his  review  of  the  situation  being  at 
once  forcible  and  exhaustive.     He  says : 

"  It  is  not  going  beyond  the  domain  of  exact  truth 
to  assert  that  no  ordinary  citizen  without  position, 
political  influence  or  wealth  is  safe  from  an  infringe- 
ment of  his  rights  if  he  unfortunately  falls  under  the 
suspicion  of  the  police.  In  such  a  case  he  is  lucky 
if  he  CvScapes  alone  with  a  deprivation  of  his  liberty, 
and  is  not  subjected  to  humiliation,  degradation,  in- 
sult and  assault.  The  principal  individual  rights 
guaranteed  by  the  constitution  and  the  laws,  both  state 
and  national,  are  not  possessed  by  the  mass  of  the 


DETERRENCE  BY  THE  POLICE  155 

people  of  our  city,  and  the  deprivation  is  through  an 
usurped  authority  of  the  police  department,  without 
right  or  reason."     And  he  adds: 

"  One  day's  visit  to  the  courts  will  overwhelmingly 
prove  the  charges  made  above.  A  morning  paper 
says :  '  More  than  half  a  hundred  men  who  sweltered 
in  the  cells  of  station  houses  during  Sunday,  one  of 
the  most  humid  days  of  the  summer,  were  adjudged 
innocent  of  wrongdoing  when  haled  into  police  court 
Monday.'  Again :  '  There  were  102  cases  on  the 
Clark  avenue  police  court  docket  Monday.  Of  this 
number  only  sixteen  convictions  were  recorded.' 
And  this  for  one  day,  and  about  one  hundred  falsely 
arrested  credited  to  the  police  department !  An  ex- 
amination of  the  testimony  in  these  cases  will  show 
that  there  was  not  a  particle  of  testimony  to  warrant 
these  arrests.  It  will  show  the  most  tyrannical  abuse 
of  power  in  the  officers  making  the  arrests,  and  a 
heartless  disregard  of  the  plainest  dictates  of  human- 
ity in  unnecessarily  shutting  them  up  like  negroes-  in 
the  hold  of  a  slave  ship  with  the  thermometer  at  90. 
Frequently  in  what  is  called  the  '  round-up  '  of  certain 
localities,  a  swarm  of  detectives  go  forth  and  indis- 
criminately arrest  persons  and  are  at  a  loss  to  know 
what  charge  to  put  against  them;  it  usually  ends  with 
the  entry,  '  Held  for  the  chief,  or  '  Idling'." 

Passing  to  a  consideration  of  the  "  third  degree  " 
the  former  governor  of  Missouri  expresses  himself  in 
the  following  forceful  language :  "  Note  some  of 
their  official  methods :  They  arrest  citizens  upon  bare 
suspicion,  and  on  the  flimsiest  hearsay  evidence  or  at 
the  dictum  of  their  chief.  The  law-prescribing  war- 
rant, in  certain  cases,  is  entirely  ignored.     They  in- 


156  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

vade  the  sanctity  of  the  home  and  drag  the  innocent, 
male  and  female,  at  unseasonable  hours  of  the  night 
to  the  prison.  But  the  principal  outrages  perpetrated 
by  them  occur  after  arrests  and  commitment  to  the 
cells  of  the  hold-over.  The  occupant  of  the  hold- 
over is  a  person  against  whom  no  formal  charge  is 
made. 

"  The  arrested  party,  if  suspected  of  complicity  in 
a  crime  or  thought  to  have  knowledge  of  others  im- 
plicated therein,  is  frequently  brought  forth  and  in 
the  presence  of  members  of  the  force  is  put  on  the 
rack  of  a  series  of  the  most  ingenious  questions,  in 
fact,  a  searching  cross-examination.  When  one  offi- 
cial becomes  wearied  another  takes  it  up,  in  the  effort 
to  entrap  the  victim  into  inculpatory  statements. 
They  are  bent  on  obtaining  a  confession  from  him. 
He  may  be  innocent;  they  consider  him  guilty.  The 
more  the  accused  insists  on  his  innocence  the  more 
fiercely  insistent  his  examiners  become.  He  is  bul- 
lied, browbeaten,  insulted,  called  foul  names,  and  if 
especiilly  obdurate  and  irritating  to  his  tormentors, 
he  is  crflfed  and  beaten.  In  administering  the  last  in- 
dignity in  various  cities  the  favorite  weapon  is  a  hard 
piece  of  rubber  hose.  It  bruises  and  leaves  no  tell- 
tale lacerated  flesh.  This  ordeal  for  the  accused,  in 
the  vulgar  language  of  the  force,  is  called  '  sweat- 
ing'." 

The  St.  Louis  Mirror  (William  Marion  Reedy,  ed- 
itor), a  weekly  of  established  reputation  in  the  liter- 
ary world,  summed  up  the  whole  case  in  an  article  so 
trenchant  that  we  reproduce  it  in  part,  as  follows : 

"  The  issue  is  not  local.  The  police  of  every  big 
city  torture  prisoners  to  extort  information  from  them 


DETERRENCE  BY  THE  POLICE  iSJ' 

to  be  used  against  themselves  or  others.  The  poHce 
say  they  do  these  things  only  to  the  professional  crim- 
inal. The  answer  is  not  good.  The  police  have  no 
right  to  abuse  a  man  or  woman  who  is  a  criminal. 
Even  the  criminal  has  rights.  He  cannot  be  deprived 
of  life,  liberty  or  property,  except  by  due  process  of 
law.  He  cannot  be  compelled  to  testify  against  him- 
self. In  England,  when  a  policeman  arrests  a  man, 
he  warns  the  prisoner  that  anything  he  may  say  will 
be  used  against  him.  This  is  supposed  to  be  a  freer 
country  than  England,  yet,  as  soon  as  a  man  is  ar- 
rested here,  he  is  subjected  to  an  inquisition  under 
threats  and  often  to  the  accompaniment  of  kicks  and 
cuffs.  The  police  have  no  authority  to  question  un- 
der torture  or  otherwise.  The  only  authority  to  ques- 
tion rests  in  the  court  in  which  the  prisoner  is  tried. 
The  police  proceed  upon  a  theory  the  exact  opposite 
of  that  of  the  law.  They  believe  every  man  guilty 
until  he  is  proven  innocent.  They  punish  him  with- 
out trial.  They  act  as  judge,  jury  and  executioner. 
And  they  are  the  more  ruthless  the  more  helpless  the 
person  falling  into  their  hands.  Police  methods  make 
criminals  worse  than  they  would  naturally  be.  We 
read  of  city  roughs  who  '  hate  the  law',  and  we  think 
it  just  natural  cussedness.  We  are  wrong.  Those 
men  do  not  hate  the  law.  They  hate  the  police  who 
abuse  and  maltreat  them  every  time  they  are  arrested. 
They  are  clubbed  and  drubbed  on  the  street  and  in  the 
calaboose.  Their  arms  are  twisted  until  they  '  talk', 
or  they  are  denied  food  and  drink." 

The  storm  in  St.  Louis  came  almost  simultaneously 
with  the  frank  avowal  that  torture  has  been  applied 
to  a  Chinaman  in  New  York,  in  an  effort  to  wring 


1^8 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

from  him  the  confession  that  he  had  murdered  Miss 
Sigel.  It  was  proved  eventually  that  he  was  not  the 
man  the  police  had  supposed  him  to  be,  and  that  he 
had  not  been  near  the  scene  of  murder.  The  course 
pursued  by  the  police  gave  rise  to  international  com- 
ment, and  we  quote  from  the  London  Spectator,  a 
weekly  of  the  very  highest  character.  After  remark- 
ing that  the  "  third  degree "  is  nothing  more  or  less 
than  the  revival  of  the  rack  and  the  thumb-screw 
in  judicial  investigations,  the  writer  continues : 
"  Enough  has  been  seen  of  the  '  third  degree  '  to  make 
it  probable  that  every  respectable  American  will  wish 
to  have  it  abolished  on  the  ground  that  it  conflicts 
with  common  sense  as  much  as  with  humanity.  Tor- 
ture never  did,  and  never  can,  prove  anything.  His- 
tory has  shown  that  the  tenacity,  even  the  callousness, 
of  victims  in  resisting  torture  equaled  the  ingenuity 
and  persistence  of  the  tormentors.  Resistance  proves 
as  little  as  surrender.  Religious  devotees,  the  profes- 
sors of  shining  and  heroic  faith,  should  have  a  digni- 
fied history  of  torture  to  themselves,  for  their  resolu- 
tion is  a  thing  apart.  If  there  is  a  source  of  endur- 
ance more  splendid  than  religious  faith  it  is  surely 
the  unwillingness  of  a  man  to  betray  his  friends.  ,  .  . 
We  venture  to  hope  that  the  latest  experience  of  the 
'  third  degree  '  in  New  York,  which  seems  consider- 
ably to  outrun  the  vices  of  '  reconstructing  the  crime  ' 
in  France,  and  which,  after  all,  is  only  the  newest  kind 
of  way  of  doing  the  oldest  kind  of  wrong,  will  cause 
every  one  to  see  that  it  is  removed  a  great  many  more 
than  three  degrees  from  usefulness  and  decency." 

We  think  it  safe  to  say  that  the  passage  represents 
the  sentiments  of  most  members  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 


DETERRENCE  BY  THE  POLICE  159 

race,  and  that  such  a  general  sentiment  represents  a 
force  which  a  nation  with  honorable  ambitions  cannot 
afford  to  ignore.  At  this  moment  much  effort  is  evi- 
dently being  expended  on  the  attempt  to  show  that 
the  "  third  degree  "  is  by  no  means  as  bad  as  it  has 
been  painted,  and  we  have  before  us,  under  date  of 
September  5,  1909,  a  syndicate  letter  reproduced  in 
the  great  Sunday  dailies  in  which  it  is  shown  that, 
originating  with  Thomas  Byrnes,  police  inspector  of 
New  York,  in  the  Hanier  murder  case,  it  has  been 
successful  in  producing  important  confessions  and 
bringing  to  the  electric  chair  those  who  otherwise 
would  have  escaped  justice.  Against  which  we 
set  the  following  sentence  from  Justice  Gaynor: 
"  Crimes  and  vices  are  evils  to  the  community ;  but  it 
behooves  a  free  people  never  to  forget  that  they  have 
more  to  fear  from  the  growth  of  the  one  vice  of  arbi- 
trary power  in  government  than  from  all  other  vices 
and  crimes  combined.  It  debases  everybody  and 
brings  in  its  train  all  of  the  vices."  If  historic  proof 
of  this  vital  truth  is  needed  let  the  reader  study 
Lecky's  "  History  of  European  morals  "  —  an  admit- 
tedly standard  work.  And  none  who  has  given 
thought  to  the  matter  will  deny  that  the  distinction  be- 
tween a  free  government  and  a  despotism  is  precisely 
this,  that  under  the  former  each  man  is  a  law  unto 
himself  until  he  invades  the  rights  of  others,  and  that 
under  the  latter  the  property,  the  liberty  and  even  the 
life  of  the  individual  may  be  taken  at  the  caprice  of 
authority. 

That  the  publicity  given  to  this  matter  recently  will 
result  in  its  being  brought  to  the  immediate  attention 
of  the  legal  fraternity  would  seem  to  be  assured  by 


i6o  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

the  appearance  of  an  article  in  the  October,  1909, 
issue  of  Bench  and  Bar,  from  which  we  quote  freely. 
After  stating  that  Prof.  Wigmore  cites  instances  of 
torture  in  Scotland  as  late  as  1690,  and  declaring  that 
on  the  continent  the  practice  continued  until  a  much 
more  recent  period,  while  some  use  was  made  of  tor- 
ture in  this  country  during  early  colonial  days,  the 
article  continues : 

"  The  '  third  degree  '  —  a  term  adopted  from  Free 
Masonry  —  shows  a  savage  survival.  There  is  little 
difference  between  it  and  the  methods  employed  in 
the  dim  past.  For  example,  in  a  Texas  case,  in  1906, 
the  defendant's  confession  of  the  charge  of  burglary 
was  obtained  after  a  rope  had  been  placed  around  his 
neck  and  drawn  up  sufificiently  to  choke  him.  This 
confession  was  admitted  in  evidence  on  the  trial,  but 
the  Texas  court  of  criminal  appeals  reversed  the  con- 
viction, saying:  'The  cruelty  manifested  on  the  part 
of  the  officers  toward  defendant  has  not  been  sur- 
passed since  the  days  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition. 
Any  officer  engaged  in,  or  permitting,  such  barbarity, 
should  be  impeached.' 

"  In  Mississippi,  not  long  ago,  a  conviction  was  re- 
versed because  what  was  referred  to  as  a  '  sweat- 
box  '  confession  had  been  admitted  in  evidence.  The 
'  sweat-box,'  it  was  made  to  appear,  was  a  compart- 
ment about  five  or  six  feet  by  eight,  entirely  dark, 
and  all  cracks  were  '  carefully  blanketed,'  to  shut  out 
light  and  air.  The  prisoner  was  allowed  no  com- 
munication with  the  outside  world,  and  from  time  to 
time  the  officer  who  had  put  him  in  this  dungeon  in- 
terrogated tlie  prisoner  about  the  crime  with  which 
he  was  charged,  although  holding  out  no  inducements 


DETERRENCE  BY  THE  POLICE  i6i 

and  making  no  threats  of  the  kind  which  commonly 
vitiate  confessions. 

"  Commenting  on  this  practice,  the  court  said : 
'  Such  proceedings  as  this  record  discloses  cannot  be 
too  strongly  denounced.  They  violate  every  principle 
of  law,  reason,  humanity,  and  personal  right.  They 
restore  the  barbarity  of  ancient  and  medieval  meth- 
ods. They  obstruct,  instead  of  advance,  the  proper 
ascertainment  of  truth.' 

"  In  a  Louisiana  case,  however,  the  court  rejected 
statements  made  by  prisoners  charged  with  burglary, 
who  had  been  heavily  handcuffed,  kept  in  separate 
cells  and  '  repeatedly  interrogated  and  plied  by  their 
keepers  with  numerous  questions,  separate  and  apart 
from  each  other,  with  direct  reference  to  the  charges 
preferred  against  them,  coupled  with  the  injunction 
that  it  were  better  for  them  that  they  should  tell  the 
truth.'  One  of  the  defendants  had  been  taken  also 
to  the  scene  of  the  supposed  burglary. 

"  As  in  earlier  times  physical  torture,  so  in  later 
days  the  '  third  degree '  has  been  resorted  to  on  oc- 
casions as  a  mere  matter  of  convenience  —  to  save 
the  trouble  of  hunting  up  evidence  elsewhere.  Thus, 
in  an  article  on  *  The  Judicial  Use  of  Torture',  Prof. 
Lowell  says :  *  Sir  James  Stephen  tells  us  that 
during  the  preparation  of  the  Indian  code  of  criminal 
procedure,  in  1872,  some  discussion  took  place  about 
the  reasons  which  occasionally  led  native  police  offi- 
cers to  torture  prisoners,  when  an  experienced  civil 
officer  observed,  "  There  is  a  great  deal  of  laziness  in 
it.  It  is  far  pleasanter  to  sit  comfortably  in  the  shade 
rubbing  red  pepper  into  a  poor  devil's  eyes  than  to 
go  about  in  the  sun  hunting  up  evidence".' 


i62 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

"  Prof.  Lowell,  after  advocating  so  radical  a  de- 
parture from  criminal  procedure  as  to  require  the 
accused  to  testify  on  the  trial,  goes  on  to  say  that  any 
preliminary  examination  of  the  accused,  however  con- 
ducted, offers,  in  the  nature  of  things,  a  great  tempta- 
tion to  oppressive  and  cruel  treatment,  and  to  prose- 
cutions on  insufficient  grounds,  while  it  tends  to  les- 
sen the  incentive  to  an  independent  and  laborious 
search  for  evidence,  and  hence  to  a  thorough  investi- 
gation of  the  facts," 

Meanwhile  an  encouraging  note  of  protest  comes 
from  the  South,  the  Georgia  court  of  appeals,  in  the 
case  of  Holmes  vs.  State,  having  upheld  recently  the 
right  of  a  man  to  defend  himself  from  illegal  arrest, 
even  at  the  cost  of  taking  life.  The  defendant  in 
that  case  was  a  negro,  and  used  his  gun  after  the  offi- 
cer had  shot  at  him.  The  Central  Laiv  Journal  re- 
marks :  "  The  sacredness  of  one's  person  from  ille- 
gal arrest,  or  his  habitation  from  unlawful  intrusion, 
is  often  disregarded  these  latter  days,  especially  in 
our  large  cities,  where  it  frequently  occurs  that  men 
are  placed  under  arrest  without  warrant  and  for  of- 
fenses not  committed  in  the  presence  of  the  officer." 

Perhaps  it  may  not  be  impertinent  to  notice  here 
the  fact  that  Inspector  Byrnes,  who  is  credited  with 
the  invention  of  the  "  third  degree",  accumulated  a 
fortune  from  his  office,  though  his  expenditures  were 
on  a  princely  scale,  and  to  contrast  this  with  Mr.  Mc- 
Adoo's  statement  relative  to  the  London  policeman's 
recognized  honesty.  In  this  connection  he  remarks : 
"  It  may  be  of  interest  to  note  that  a  chief  inspector 
who  died  while  I  was  in  London,  after  serving  on  the 
police  force  for  nearly  forty  years,  and  who  had  a 


DETERRENCE  BY  THE  POLICE 163 

remarkably  brilliant  career  as  policeman  and  detec- 
tive, left  an  estate  of  less  than  four  thousand  dollars. 
No  one  ever  questioned  this  man's  honesty.  The  es- 
tate left  is  about  what  would  represent  his  savings. 
There  is  no  suspicion  of  graft  in  cases  like  this,  and 
it  speaks  well  for  the  incorruptibility  of  the  superior 
officers  of  the  London  force.  Imagine  this  man's  op- 
portunities in  New  York  to  get  rich  and  leave  an  im- 
mense fortune." 

Throughout  this  chapter  we  are  considering  the 
deterrent  policy  pursued  by  the  police,  and  are  point- 
ing out  that  the  innumerable  illegalities  in  which  they 
indulge  are  condoned  because  the  people  still  believe 
in  the  deterrent  theory,  guessing  blindly  that  high- 
handed action  by  the  authorities  makes  for  the 
diminution  of  crime.  For  this  reason  we  have  not 
dealt  with  their  position  respecting  the  social  evil  or 
gambling,  for,  whatever  may  be  the  outcome  of  this 
or  that  special  case  in  which  an  officer  is  put  on  trial 
for  blackmailing  haunts  of  vice,  the  entire  American 
public  knows  well  that  the  police  habitually  derive 
enormous  revenues  from  those  sources.  Along  those 
lines  practically  no  effort  to  deter  is  made,  taking  the 
country  as  a  whole.  But  extortion  is  always  and  ev- 
erywhere the  besetting  sin  of  society's  paid  pro- 
tectors; and  it  is  a  sin  that  must  be  handled  without 
gloves. 

The  extortion  habitually  practiced  by  the  police, 
and  the  protection  they  extend  to  vice  that  is  able  to 
pay,  have  been  for  long  past  matter  of  such  common 
knowledge  that  the  conscience  of  the  nation  has 
grown  callous,  accepting  the  infamous  tyranny  as 
amonsf  the  inevitable  evils  of  life.     For  this  reason 


i64  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

, 1 

we  devote  space  to  this  particular  phase  of  the  prob- 
lem, utilizing  the  discussion  to  which  the  present  re- 
volt against  Tammany's  rule  of  New  York  city  has 
given  rise.  The  more  recent  revelations  connect 
themselves  directly  with  the  "  white  slave "  traffic, 
which  has  grown  to  such  proportions,  in  New  York, 
under  the  sheltering  wing  of  politics  and  the  police, 
that  today  that  city  occupies  the  unenviable  position 
of  being  the  procuring  center  of  the  world. 

The  late  Bishop  Henry  C.  Potter,  representing  the 
Protestant  churches  of  New  York,  addressed  an  open 
letter  to  Mayor  Van  Wyck,  November  15,  1900,  in 
which  he  said,  among  other  things :  "  But  the  thing 
that  is  of  consequence,  sir,  is  that  when  a  minister  of 
religion  goes  to  the  headquarters  of  the  police  of  his 
district  to  appeal  to  them  for  the  protection  of  the 
young,  the  innocent  and  defenseless,  against  the  lep- 
rous harpies  who  are  hired  as  runners  and  touters  for 
the  lowest  and  most  infamous  dens  of  vice,  he  is  met 
not  only  with  contempt  and  derision  (of  police  offi- 
cials), but  with  the  coarsest  insult  and  obloquy.  .  .  . 
Before  God  and  in  the  face  of  the  citizens  of  New 
York,  I  protest,  as  my  people  have  charged  me  to  do, 
against  the  habitual  insult,  the  persistent  menace,  the 
unutterably  defiling  contacts  to  which,  day  by  day, 
because  of  the  base  complicity  of  the  police  of  New 
York  with  the  lowest  forms  of  vice  and  crime,  they 
are  subjected." 

So  appalling  was  the  scandal  under  Van  Wyck's 
regime  that  a  committee  of  fifteen  was  appointed  to 
investigate  the  "  white  slave  "  trade,  and  from  its  re- 
port on  the  tenement-house  district  we  quote  as  fol- 
lows :     "  The  revenue-producing  power  of  the  sale  of 


DETERRENCE  BY  THE  POLICE  165 

immunity  by  the  police  seemed  to  make  the  appetite 
of  the  police  insatiable.  The  infamy  of  the  private 
house,  with  all  the  horrors  arising  from  the  '  cadet ' 
system,  did  not  satisfy  official  greed.  The  tenement 
houses  were  levied  upon  and  the  prostitutes  began  to 
ply  their  trade  therein  openly.  In  many  of  these  ten- 
ement houses  as  many  as  fifty  children  resided.  An 
acquaintance  by  the  children  with  adult  vices  was  in- 
evitable. The  children  of  the  tenements  eagerly 
watch  the  new  sights  in  their  midst.  The  statistics 
of  venereal  diseases  among  children,  and  the  many 
revolting  stories  from  the  red-light  district,  tell  how 
completely  they  learned  the  lessons  taught  them." 

It  may  be  necessary  to  explain  that  "  cadet "  is  the 
more  recent  and  eastern  term  for  "  mac  ",  a  profes- 
sional seducer,  who  lives  on  the  prostitution  earnings 
of  his  victim. 

In  May,  1903,  Lincoln  Steffens  made  a  most  thor- 
ough investigation  of  conditions  in  Pittsburg,  which 
he  describes  thus :  "  Disorderly  houses  are  managed 
by  ward  syndicates.  Permission  is  had  from  the 
syndicate  real  estate  agent,  who  alone  can  rent  them. 
The  syndicate  hires  the  houses  from  the  owners  at, 
say,  $35  a  month,  and  lets  it  to  a  woman  at  from  $35 
to  $50  a  week.  For  furniture  the  tenant  must  go  to 
the  '  official  furniture  man ',  who  delivers  $1000 
worth  of  '  fixings  '  for  a  note  for  $3000,  on  which 
high  interest  must  be  paid.  For  beer  the  tenant  must 
go  to  the  '  official  bottler ',  and  pay  $2  for  a  $1 
case  of  beer ;  for  wines  and  liquors  to  the  '  official 
liquor  commissioner ',  who  charges  $10  for  $5 
worth ;  for  clothes  to  the  '  official  wrapper-maker '. 
These    women    may    not    buy    shoes,    hats,    jewelry 


i66  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

—— : r^ T-r.. 

or  any  other  luxury  or  necessity  except  from  the 
official  concessionaires,  and  then  only  at  the  official, 
monopoly  prices.  If  the  victims  have  anything  left, 
a  police  or  some  other  city  official  is  said  to  call  and 
get  it  —  there  are  rich  ex-police  officials  in  Pittsburg." 

Here  we  have  in  a  nutshell  the  details  of  as  revolt- 
ing a  form  of  human  slavery  as  ever  disgraced  the 
pages  of  history ;  existing  in  what  is,  par  excellence, 
the  city  of  millionaires,  the  main  beneficiaries  of  that 
protective  tariff  which"  is  supposed  to  shield  the 
American  workingman  from  the  competition  of  Eu- 
ropean labor.  Thick-headed  indeed  must  be  the  man 
or  woman  who  cannot  understand  at  a  glance  that 
such  slavery  is  rendered  possible  solely  by  the  active 
connivance  of  the  police. 

In  the  summer  of  1909  Police  Inspector  Edward 
McCann  of  Chicago  was  tried  for  receiving  money 
for  the  protection  of  the  traffic  in  women  on  the  west 
side  of  the  city.  Speaking  of  that  traffic  George 
Kibbe  Turner,  one  of  the  most  competent  publicists 
and  investigators  of  the  day,  has  said :  "  Chicago  has 
it  organized  —  from  the  supplying  of  young  girls  to 
the  drugging  of  the  older  and  less  salable  women  out 
of  existence  —  with  all  the  nicety  of  modern  indus- 
try. As  in  the  stockyards,  not  one  shred  of  flesh  is 
wasted." 

McCann's  trial  stirred  up  great  excitement  among 
Chicago's  Jewish  population,  for  it  developed  that 
Julius  Frank,  president  of  a  Jewish  congregation,  was 
a  notorious  leader  in  the  traffic.  The  Fonoard  made 
a  special  investigation  of  the  case  and  reported: 
"  One  of  these  prominent  Jews  is  Julius  Frank. 
Julius  Frank  confessed  openly  that  he  was  the  owner 


DETERRENCE  BY  THE  POLICE  167 

of  a  number  of  disorderly  houses.  He  confessed  that 
he  paid  protection  money  to  the  police  so  that  his 
houses  might  not  be  raided."  To  their  great  credit 
be  it  said  the  leading  Jews  of  Chicago  took  the  mat- 
ter up  immediately,  and  in  the  most  energetic  manner. 

In  an  article  in  The  Survey,  dated  November  6, 
1909,  on  "  The  Police  and  Vice  in  Chicago  ",  Graham 
Taylor  considers  that  the  situation  there  has  improved 
with  the  resignation  of  Chief  George  M.  Shippy.  He 
states  that  under  Shippy's  regime  "  the  League  for 
the  Protection  of  Immigrants  was  obliged  to  seek  the 
police  power  of  the  national  government  to  protect 
defenseless  women  and  girls  from  the  aggressive  ex- 
ploitation of  organized  vice  syndicates,  with  which 
the  Chicago  police  could  neither  be  shamed  nor  forced 
to  interfere.  Through  the  swift  and  sure  work  of  the 
Department  of  Justice  at  Washington,  in  co-operation 
with  the  Bureau  of  Immigration,  the  United  States 
district  attorney  was  able  to  break  up  the  principal 
centers  of  the  traffic  openly  maintained  by  these  out- 
laws. Some  of  them  were  driven  to  jump  bail  as 
high  as  $25,000  in  their  flight  to  foreign  lands,  only 
to  be  arrested  and  imprisoned  on  landing  in  accord- 
ance with  the  international  compact  against  them. 
But  this  was  possible  only  by  substituting  the  national 
secret-service  detectives  for  the  Chicago  police,  who 
conspired  with  the  criminals  in  thwarting  justice. 

"  During  this  same  police  administration  no  less 
than  thirty-three  dynamite  bombs  were  exploded  on 
the  streets  and  within  buildings  in  the  very  center  of 
Chicago,  most  of  them  in  front  of  gambling  establish- 
ments. The  suspicion  is  generally  entertained  by  the 
people  and  the  charge  openly  made  by  the  press  that 
most,  if  not  all,  of  these  crimes  are  traceable  to  the 


i68  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

gamblers  whom  the  police  had  driven  out  of  business, 
and  who  thus  entered  their  gentle  protest  against  the 
police  protection  of  a  few  influential  gamblers  who 
openly  continued  illegal  gaming.  Thus  public  opin- 
ion accounts  for  the  fact  that  no  indictments  or  even 
arrests  were  secured  against  the  perpetrators  of  these 
outrages,  which  wrecked  buildings  and  imperiled  life. 
The  alacrity  with  which  the  police  sought  to  fix  the 
responsibility  for  'bomb  No.  31  '  upon  a  labor  union 
man,  who,  however,  has  not  yet  been  tried  or  con- 
victed, only  strengthens  the  suspicion  that  the  police 
did  not  dare  expose  their  own  complicity  in  the  occa- 
sion for  these  crimes,  by  bringing  their  perpetrators 
lo  trial." 

In  November,  1907,  George  Kennan,  writing  in 
McClure's  Magazine  on  conditions  in  San  Francisco, 
describes  the  situation  there  in  the  following  concise 
language :  "  The  saloons,  generally,  had  thrown  off 
all  restraints  of  law;  brothals,  gambling  dens  and 
assignation  houses  multiplied  and  flourished  under 
administrative  protection ;  women  lured  men  to  dives 
and  deadfalls,  and  assisted  in  the  work  of  drugging 
and  robbing  them ;  charges  brought  against  law- 
breakers were  dismissed,  or  indefinitely  postponed,  by 
the  police  commission  and  the  police  courts;  honest 
officers  who  tried  to  enforce  the  laws  were  transferred 
to  quiet  and  unimportant  resident  districts."  In  con- 
nection with  which  last  remark  may  be  considered 
the  statement  by  S.  S.  McClure,  in  McClure's  Maga- 
zine, November,  1909,  that  the  United  States  "  is  the 
only  country  in  which  honest  policemen  have  every- 
thing to  fear  in  enforcing  the  law,  and  in  which  the 
police  in  general  are  engaged  in  degrading  the  com- 
munities   that    they    are    supposed    to    serve ".     He 


DETERRENCE  BY  THE  POLICE  169 

points  out  further  that  all  this  is  a  far  graver  question 
than  one  of  mere  dollars  and  cents,  our  very  national 
life  being  threatened,  and  says :  "  Across  the  entire 
United  States  a  standing  army  of  tens  of  thousands 
of  '  cadets  '  and  prostitutes,  practically  all  of  ■  them 
diseased,  is  maintained  by  the  politicians  of  its  large 
cities  for  the  perennial  infection  of  the  population. 
An  army  of  lepers  of  equal  size  would  be  far  less 
dangerous.  The  very  existence  of  the  present  force 
demonstrates  that  it  is  daily  infecting  thousands  of 
people  with  one  of  the  most  terrible  diseases  known 
to  medicine."  All  of  which  is  made  possible  by  the 
direct  connivance  of  the  police ;  the  fact  that  they 
themselves  are  under  the  thumb  of  the  politicians  ex- 
plaining, perhaps,  but  in  no  way  altering  the  desperate 
situation. 

That  the  police  generally  look  to  the  politicians  as 
their  real  masters  is  emphasized  again  and  again  in 
the  articles  that  have  appeared  recently  from  the  pen 
of  Gen.  Theodore  A.  Bingham,  late  commissioner  of 
police  in  New  York  city.  In  McC lure's  Magazine  for 
November,  1909,  he  relates  the  history  of  his  efforts 
to  procure  the  passage  of  a  bill  that  would  bring  the 
force  more  under  the  control  of  the  commissioner, 
who  is  supposed  to  be  the  head  of  the  entire  system, 
and  says :  "  I  was  told  that  it  would  be  impossible 
to  pass  this  bill,  but  we  succeeded  in  passing  it  in  the 
spring  of  1907  —  after  I  had  got  hold  of  and  had  had 
redistributed  to  the  members  of  the  force  eighty  thou- 
sand dollars  which  had  been  collected  secretly  among 
them  to  defeat  it  in  the  legislature." 

Gen.  Bingham  thus  describes  the  experiences 
through  which  he  passed  when  he  assumed  office: 
"  I  found  immediately  that  among  the  officers  of  the 


170  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

force  there  were  very  few  I  could  trust  to  carry  out 
my  orders  in  good  faith.  The  reason  was  very  sim- 
ple. I  was  head  of  the  department  for  an  indeter- 
minate period,  which  might  end  at  any  time.  Back 
of  me  was  the  mayor,  who  chose  me,  and  whose  office 
would  also  end  at  an  early  date.  Back  of  him  was 
the  permanent  political  machine,  which  elected  him. 
As  the  policeman  is  in  office  for  life,  he  very  logically 
looked  past  both  the  mayor  and  me,  and  made  his 
alliances  and  took  his  orders  from  the  only  perma- 
nent influence  concerned  —  the  politician." 

The  entire  position,  therefore,  sums  itself  up  thus : 
In  theory  the  police  are  the  servants  of  the  people, 
charged  with  the  prevention  and  suppression  of  crime. 
In  reality  they  are  the  servants  of  the  dominant  polit- 
ical machine,  with  which  they  invariably  make  their 
alliance  because  such  alliance  renders  their  tenure  of 
office  secure  and  guarantees  them  enormous  illicit  rev- 
enues. Instead  of  being  interested  in  the  suppression 
and  prevention  of  crime  they  are  directly  interested  in 
its  continual  increase;  just  as  the  vast  array  of  strug- 
gling medical  practitioners  are  dependent  on  the  spread 
of  disease,  and  the  swarms  of  needy  lawyers  on  the 
multiplication  and  subtle  elaboration  of  laws.  With 
all  these  classes  the  struggle  for  existence  and  the 
fundamental  instinct  of  selt-preservation  hold  supreme 
sway.  But  society  also  must  preserve  itself,  and 
crime,  physical  disease,  the  multiplication  of  crime- 
breeding  laws  and  official  corruption  are  fatal  to  it. 
All  these,  somehow  or  other,  it  must  abolish,  if  it  is 
to  survive ;  and  nothing  is  more  certain  than  the  fact 
that,  in  its  war  against  these  evils,  it  must  reckon  as 
enemies  those  who  owe  their  living  to  the  existence 
of  those  evils.    We  speak,  of  course,  in  general  terms, 


DETERRENCE  BY  THE  POLICE  171 

granting  freely  that  there  are  exceptions  to  the  rule  — 
individuals  who  rise  to  the  occasion  and  prefer  the 
public  good  to  their  own  private  welfare. 

There  is  another  matter  in  which  the  police  proceed 
directly  on  the  deterrent,  or  frightening  principle; 
arrogating  to  themselves  the  guardianship  of  pubHc 
morals,  in  defiance  alike  of  the  United  States  constitu- 
tion and  the  laws  of  individual  states.  We  refer  to 
the  suppression  of  free  speech,  the  most  unpardonable 
of  all  crimes  since  it  strikes  not  only  at  liberty,  but  at 
all  human  progress,  it  being  impossible  for  the  mind 
to  advance  save  by  hearing  both  the  true  and  false, 
and  discriminating  between  them.  Whatever  may  be 
the  faults  of  the  British  they  have  stood  loyally 
for  free  speech  these  many  centuries  and  have 
bequeathed  us  a  literature,  as  in  Mill  on  "  Liberty," 
the  "  Areopagitica "  of  Milton,  and  other  immortal 
works,  which  have  made  the  scholars  of  the  world  a 
unit  on  this  as  the  most  indispensable  of  all  liberties. 
That  it  should  be  in  the  power  of  an  ignorant,  and  too 
often  utterly  corrupt,  policeman  to  deprive  educated 
persons  of  their  right  to  express  themselves,  and  the 
audience  of  its  right  to  obtain  instruction,  is  probably 
the  most  alarming  feature  of  modern  official 
encroachmicnts. 

But,  if  the  police  break  up  meetings  without  warrant 
and  illegally  arrest  those  whom  they  consider  unde- 
sirable agitators,  this  is  only  an  infinitesimal  part  of 
the  unceasing  campaign  they  wage  against  free  speech. 
It  is  in  the  constant  pressure  brought  to  bear  by  them 
upon  the  press  that  the  great  suppression  lies,  and  this 
every  editor  and  police  court  reporter  in  the  country 
knows  full  well.  In  our  larger  and  smaller  cities  alike 
the  heart  of  the  day's  news  would  be  lacking  if  the 


172  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


items  obtained  from  the  courts  were  omitted,  and  it 
is  this  which  clothes  the  poHce  with  such  despotic 
power.  Let  an  editor  yield  to  the  indignation  so  fre- 
quently felt  by  his  court  reporter  respecting  some 
more  than  usually  flagrant  outrage  committed  by  an 
officer ;  let  him  brave  the  authorities  by  exposing  it  in 
his  columns,  and  his  paper  will  be  denied  the  news 
without  which  he  dare  not  go  to  press.  When  the 
reporter  applies  for  information  at  the  various  desks, 
next  day,  he  will  be  told  that  nothing  has  transpired; 
and  the  representatives  of  rival  papers,  more  wisely 
subservient,  will  "  scoop "  him  at  every  turn.  A 
reporter  so  boycotted  becomes  at  once  an  impossibility, 
and,  however  greatly  his  editor  may  value  his  abilities 
and  past  services,  it  becomes  necessary  to  withdraw 
him.  Every  newspaper  min  in  the  country,  we  repeat, 
knows  this  well,  but  probably  even  few  of  that  class 
have  thought  out  the  enormity  of  the  censorship  thus 
exercised  by  the  police. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE     FEE     SYSTEM 

Over  the  sheriff's  office  in  Los  Ang-eles  appears, 
in  huge  letters,  the  inscription  "  Hall  of  Justice ". 
And  the  office  is  run  on  the  fee  system!  And  we 
flatter  ourselves  that  we  are  a  nation  with  a  sense  of 
humor ! 

We  shall  explain  the  fee  system  briefly  and  illustrate 
it  by  only  a  few  examples  because  it  stands  so  obviously 
self-condemned,  incapable  of  putting  up  even  the 
semblance  of  a  plausible  defense.  It  is  part,  and  per- 
haps the  most  despicable  part,  of  the  deterrent  system, 
because,  under  the  pretense  of  ridding  the  rural  com- 
munities of  tramps  and  undesirable  characters,  it  is 
the  rod  of  terror  held  over  workers  who,  when  thrown 
out  of  employment  in  the  cities,  take  to  the  provinces 
in  search  of  a  chance  to  earn  a  living.  It  is  the 
squeezer  by  which  justices  of  the  peace  and  country 
constables  extort  a  most  nefarious  livelihood.  It  goes 
without  saying  that  the  trade  of  running  men  in  "  for 
revenue  only  "  is  not  one  that  ever  appeals  to  a  high 
order  of  intelligence  or  character,  but  in  hundreds  of 
counties  throughout  the  United  States  the  machinery 
of  justice  is  so  arranged  that  the  income  of  men  of 
this  class  is  dependent  on  the  number  of  persons  they 
can  catch  and  land  in  jail.  Under  such  conditions 
justice  becomes  a  farce  and  the  taxpayers  are  bled 
remorselessly. 

We  use  this  condemnatory  language  with  confidence 
both  because  of  our  own  knowledge  of  the  system,  and 


174  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

because  it  was  the  subject  of  a  special  report  made 
to  the  American  Prison  Association  congress  of  1907 
by  a  committee,  composed  of  four  noted  criminologists 
appointed  the  year  previous  to  inquire  into  the  condi- 
tions of  county  jails.  The  committee  expressed  itself, 
in  part,  as  follows :  "  We  turned  up  plenty  of  ugly 
testimony  to  the  effect  that  when  a  county  sheriff  is 
paid  for  his  services  in  fees,  rather  than  by  salary, 
he  must  have  the  sturdy  virtue  of  a  Cromwell  or  a 
Lincoln  to  preserve  his  soul  in  a  state  of  grace.  The 
testimony  from  all  parts  of  the  land  demonstrates 
that  the  fee  system  tends  to  injustice,  to  false  im- 
prisonment, to  delay  of  trials,  to  plunder  of  the 
public  treasury,  coming  and  going,  in  and  out,  to 
partisan  corruption,  to  official  robbery,  to  the  defile- 
ment of  the  character  of  the  agents  of  justice." 

Is  it  possible  to  damn  in  stronger  terms?  When 
you  strip  off  the  trimmings  and  get  down  to  essentials, 
what  is  a  country  really  worth  in  which  there  is 
injustice,  in  which  there  is  false  imprisonment,  in 
which  trials  are  willfully  delayed,  in  which  the  public 
treasury  is  plundered,  in  which  there  is  partisan  cor- 
ruption, in  which  there  is  official  robbery,  and  in 
which  the  character  of  the  agents  of  just'ce  is  de- 
filed? Yet  every  one  of  these  unspeakably  serious 
charges  could  be  amply  proved  as  existing  under  the 
fee  system.  One  need  not  go  a  hundred  miles  from 
Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  where  this  is  written,  to  name  men 
who  have  been  arrested,  lodged  and  kept  in  jail  long 
terms  for  no  other  reason  than  that  their  evidence  was 
stated  to  be  necessary  in  a  certain  prosecution,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  army  of  unfortunates  whose  sole  crime 
was  that  they  were  out  pf  work  and  had  the  enterprise 


THE  FEE  SYSTEM  175 

to  pack  their  blankets  and  scour  the  country  for  a  job. 
While  as  for  "  partisan  corruption ",  it  is  common 
knowledge  that  wherever  the  fee  system  prevails  the 
sheriflF's  office  is  one  of  the  fattest  political  plums, 
though  no  one  can  say  what  it  is  actually  worth. 

It  is  to  the  credit  of  the  federal  government  that 
although  it  lags  far  behind  in  the  matter  of  juvenile 
probation  laws  and  other  reforms,  it  has  abolished  the 
fee  system.  Elsewhere  it  generally  has  been  possible 
to  do  so  only  after  conditions  have  reached  a  point  at 
which  the  scandal  has  become  unbearable,  for  active 
financial  interests  are  at  stake  and  fight  desperately 
against  change. 

The  processes  by  which  men  are  railroaded  to  jail 
will  be  seen  most  clearly  if  we  take  the  case  of  the 
country  constable,  and,  since  it  is  much  the  same 
wherever  the  fee  system:  is  in  force,  we  select  a  town 
in  Los  Angeles  county,  given  in  the  constable's  returns 
as  seventy-six  miles  from  Los  Angeles.  The  record 
shows  that  the  constable  there  in  December,  igcS, 
arrested  and  brought  to  Los  Angeles  forty-two  men. 
Four  of  these  arrests  were  for  vagrancy,  thirty-seven 
for  malicious  mischief  and  one  for  battery.  Seeing 
that  the  town  in  question  has  only  300  inhabitants,  it 
must  either  be  frequented  by  an  unusually  large  per- 
centage of  bad  men  or  the  constable  must  have  an 
exceptionally  keen  eye  for  evil-doers.  Well,  the  con- 
stable's bill  against  the  county  for  that  month  is 
$209.68,  of  which  $159.90  is  for  "mileage"  —  the 
taking  of  his  prisoners  to  Los  Angeles  for  trial.  He 
is  allowed  a  fee  of  $1  for  each  arrest  and  mileage  of 
twenty-five  cents  a  mile  within  his  township  and  fif- 
teen cents  a  mile  outside  of  it.     It  is  needless  to  say 


176  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

that  the  railroad  companies  do  not  charge  fifteen  cents 
a  mile,  and  in  this  one  item  of  mileage  there  is  always 
and  everywhere  the  biggest  kind  of  a  rake-off. 

Take  another  town,  also  given  in  the  latest  guide  as 
of  300  population.  There  in  December,  1908,  the 
constable  made  104  arrests,  surely  an  enormous  num- 
ber for  so  small  a  place!  Seventy-one  of  these  were 
for  malicious  mischief,  fourteen  for-  vagrancy,  and 
sixteen  for  evading  payment  of  railroad  fare.  The 
bill  against  the  county  was  $362.80.  The  previous 
month  it  had  been  only  $123.10,  and  the  month  before 
that  only  $8.  In  fact,  if  one  were  to  judge  by  the 
officer's,  returns,  this  village  is  visited  by  extraordinary 
waves  of  crime.  Tn  a  single  month  the  constable  does 
business  that  brings  him  in  $362.80,  and  there  are 
three  months  in  which  he  does  not  make  a  cent.  But 
an  explanation  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  salaries  made 
by  many  country  constables  became  such  a  scandal 
that  the  board  of  county  supervisors  limited  the 
amount  any  one  could  draw  to  $1200  a  year.  It  is 
permitted,  however,  to  lump  the  entire  twelve  months, 
so  that  the  returns  for  a  few  active  months  may  make 
up  the  total  that  can  be  charged  for  the  year. 

Here  is  another  town,  in  the  same  district,  on  the 
same  line  of  road,  practically  under  the  same  condi- 
tions as  those  prevailing  in  the  one  just  considered. 
But  it  has  exactly  four  times  the  population.  Yet 
the  constable's  bill  for  December  was  only  $92.90  as 
against  $362.80  in  a  neighboring  town  of  only  one- 
fourth  its  size.  But  he  also  manages  to  draw  his  full 
amount  from  the  county,  the  bill  rendered  for  the 
year  being  $1201.35. 


THE  FEE  SYSTEM i77 

Is  it  necessary  to  multiply  examples?  Everywhere 
and  always  it  has  been  understood  that  the  country 
constable,  often,  if  not  always,  in  collusion  with  the 
justice  of  the  peace,  has  feathered  his  nest  from  his 
mileage.  One  cannot  imagine  a  more  direct  induce- 
ment to  run  men  in  and  convoy  them  to  the  county 
jail,  regardless  of  their  innocence.  And  constables 
have  been  known  to  help  a  friend  who  wanted  a  trip 
to  town  by  making  a  convenient  arrest  and  putting 
him  in  charge. 

San  Bernardino  county,  Cal.,  is  a  good  illustration. 
They  put  all  their  officers  on  straight  salary  some 
fourteen  years  ago,  but  the  mileage  charges  were  re- 
tained. The  amount  that  certain  constables  were 
making  became  a  public  scandal ;  such  towns  as  Victor- 
ville,  Barstow,  Daggett  and  the  Needles  became  known 
as  "  hobo  mills,"  and  at  one  town  the  justice  of  the 
peace  was  fami'iarly  known  as  "Ninety-day"  —  hav- 
ing the  reputation  of  running  in  every  possible  stran- 
ger and  passing  one  invariable  sentence.  In  August, 
1908,  the  grand  jury,  after  investigating  the  claims 
sent  in  by  desert  constables,  recommended  that  they 
should  be  allowed  to  charge  only  such  mileage  as 
they  had  actually  paid  for,  and  at  present  every  con- 
stable's account  contains  an  affidavit  to  that  effect. 
What  has  happened  ?  The  constables  have  united 
and  brought  a  test  case,  seeking  to  have  the  action 
taken  by  the  county  declared  illegal. 

We  have  given  the  evidence  of  sworn  statements  on 
file  in  the  Los  Ange'es  courthouse,  but  newspaper 
men  know  well  that  there  is  a  class  of  evidence  that, 
if  possible,  is  even  stronger  than  this  —  universal 
testimony.     Every  newspaper  man  who  has  investi- 


178  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

gated  this  field  knows  that  the  testimony  of  the  men 
who,  often  from  choice,  but  also  often  from  necessity, 
pack  their  blankets  will  support  unanimously  our 
charges,  and  there  is  in  Los  Angeles  more  than  one 
reporter  and  curious  amateur  who  has  gone  on  the 
tramp  to  verify  for  himself  the  general  report.  An 
article  by  one  of  these  is  now  before  us.  It  begins  by 
saying  that  the  man  in  search  of  employment  has  noth- 
ing to  fear  from  the  railroad  detectives  or  the  city 
policemen  who  are  on  salary,  but  that  the  tramp 
catchers  "  for  revenue  only  "  will  arrest  the  sick  and 
crippled  without  mercy.  The  reporter  in  question 
carried  a  gold  watch  and  had  too  prosperous  an  ap- 
pearance for  the  part,  with  the  result  that  almost  the 
first  country  constable  he  met  after  leaving  Los  An- 
geles fraternized  with  him  and  asked  him  to  his  ofiice. 
The  story  proceeds : 

"  Entering,  he  invited  me  to  be  seated,  and  then  he 
inquired  about  different  persons  employed  at  the  Pa- 
cific Electric  company.  Just  then  a  fellow  carrying 
a  big  roll  of  blankets  passed  the  depot.  The  constable 
almost  jumped  out  of  h*s  seat,  stopped  the  laborer  and 
after  he  found  that  this  harmless  fellow,  who  had . 
been  peacefully  counting  the  ties  toward  Los  Angeles, 
where  he  expected  to  find  some  employment  on  the 
aqueduct,  had  only  forty  cents  in  cash,  he  placed  him 
under  arrest  as  a  vagrant,  in  spite  of  all  the  pleadings 
of  the  poor  fellow,  who  had  proof  on  his  person  in  the 
shape  of  letters  and  recommendations,  that  he  had 
a  large  family  and  old  parents  to  support." 

This  simple  story  could  be  reproduced  from  a  hun- 
dred different  sources,  and  is  repeated  over  and  over 
again  in  the  narrative  just  quoted  from.     Occasion- 


THE  FEE  SYSTEM  179 

ally  it  is  relieved  by  a  touch  of  humor,  as  where  a 
Mexican  constable  confessed  that  "  he  had  to  arrest 
$75  worth  of  tramps  a  month  to  hold  his  job,  as 
$35  had  to  be  paid  by  him  to  the  fellow  who  had 
given  him  the  chance  to  make  this  kind  of  a  living-." 
But  perhaps  the  most  suggestive  part  is  that  which 
says :  "  I  discovered  that  Orange  county  had  saved 
last  year  $22,000  in  county  expenses  by  paying  cash 
salaries  to  its  constables  and  their  deputies.  I  found 
at  Orange  a  total  absence  of  interest  in  harmless 
wanderers,  and  no  one  is  arrested  in  Orange  county 
on  trumped  up  charges.  The  taxpayers  are  saving 
money  formerly  wasted  in  feeding  tramping  loafers 
and  feeing  loafing  officials." 

In  1903  another  county,  Kern,  which,  like  Orange, 
adjoins  Los  Angeles  county,  abolished  the  fee  system, 
putting  its  officers  on  straight  salaries.  It  reports  a 
saving  of  thousands  of  dollars  and  an  immense  de- 
crease of  commitments.  The  Antelope  Valley  Ga- 
zette, published  at  Lancaster,  I^os  Angeles  county, 
recently  made  a  special  investigation  of  the  effects  of 
the  change  on  its  neighbor.  Among  others  it  inter- 
viewed Judge  M.  G.  Reddy  of  Mojave,  the  junction 
of  the  Southern  Pacific  and  Santa  Fe  railroads  and  a 
point  productive  of  numerous  arrests  under  the  fee 
system.  It  showed  him  the  returns  from  Lancaster 
in  November,  1908,  and  remarks  as  follows:  "  When 
scrutinizing  more  closely  the  proceedings  for  Novem- 
ber the  judge  admitted  that  under  the  commission  sys- 
tem his  court  proportionately  could  have  had  a  list  of 
six  hundred  instead  of  seven,  if  Lancaster  could  pro- 
duce forty-one.  Judge  Reddy  felt  there  was  less 
chance  for  ill  use  of  power  and  connivery,  besides  a 


i8o       .  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

man  was  freer  to  act  impartially  when  there  was  no 
financial  interest  at  stake." 

These  illustrations  will  hold  good  wherever  the 
fee  system  is  in  operation,  for  the  proposition  is 
simplicity  itself.  The  constable's  income  is  dependent 
on  the  number  he  lands  in  jail,  and  as  soon  as  he  has 
hardened  to  his  occupation  he  may  be  relied  on  to  use 
every  trick  at  his  disposal  to  swell  his  income.  He  is 
no  longer  an  agent  of  justice;  he  is  a  trafficker  in 
human  liberty. 

We  have  taken  up  the  trail  at  the  start,  where  there 
are  no  complications,  and  it  can  be  easily  read.  Were 
it  to  be  followed  to  the  county  jail  and  the  sheriff's 
office,  where  the  administration  of  both  the  civil  and 
criminal  law  is  burdened  with  an  endless  succession 
of  fees,  every  one  of  which  denies  justice  to  the 
poor  man  and  makes  it  the  monopoly  of  the  rich, 
the  tracking  might  be  more  difficult,  but  the  result 
would  be  identical  —  an  entire  class  pecuniarily  inter- 
ested in  depriving  their  fellow  beings  of  liberty.  The 
situation  unquestionably  is  not  ideal. 

Meanwhile  reformers  and  thoughtful  people  write 
papers  and  deliver  addresses.  They  show  how  the 
figures  of  criminal  convictions  mount  with  every  in- 
dustrial depression,  and  trace  cause  and  effect.  They 
deplore  the  congested  condition  of  our  cities  and  ex- 
plain the  necessity  of  the  worker  getting  back  to  the 
country  and  the  land.  They  criticise  the  arrange- 
ments of  our  city  and  county  jails,  in  which  the  in- 
nocent, the  juvenile  and  the  first  offender  are  herded 
cheek  by  jowl  with  the  hardened  criminal,  the  chronic 
drunk  or  tramp,  all  the  flotsam  and  jetsam  that  a 
one-sided  civilization  carries  on  its  current.  They 
declare  these  conditions  must  not  exist  one  moment 


THE  BULL  RINGS. 


This  form  of  corture — otherwise-  known  as  the  "hook"  and  "strap- 
pado"— is  in  wide -spread  use.    It  causes  excruciating 
agony.     See  page  46. 


i82  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

longer,  and  they  declare  it  so  vociferously  that  now 
and  again  some  paper  takes  the  question  up  and 
creates  an  ephemeral  sensation  by  writing  up  a  jail 
with  sickening  fidelity. 

On  the  other  hand  conservatives  swell  the  chorus 
with  laments  over  the  increasing  tendency  to  discon- 
tent and  violence  manifested  by  the  workers.  They 
ignore  the  fact  that  we  have  passed  through  a  long 
series  of  revolutionary  industrial  changes,  producing 
unsettled  conditions  that  have  thrown  huge  armies  of 
men  out  of  work.  It  is  not  pleasant  to  be  anxious  to 
earn  a  living  and  to  find  the  opportunity  closed.  En- 
forced idleness  invariably  produces  a  mental  irrita- 
tion that  is  fruitful  of  disturbance,  and  on  the  top  of 
this  inevitable  bitterness  comes  the  country  constable, 
"  for  revenue  only  ",  anxious  to  make  his  living  out 
of  his  mileage  and  fees,  and  arrests  the  man  who 
harks  back  to  the  country  and  industriously  canvasses 
it  in  search  of  work. 

Yet  this  is  the  system  found,  strongly  entrenched 
and  apparently  impervious  to  criticism,  in  even  the 
most  progressive  sections  of  the  country  —  in  Indiana, 
for  example,  which  has  taken  a  most  advanced  stand 
otherwise  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  crime  and  the 
treatment  of  criminals ! 

When  considering  the  southern  convict  camps  we 
gave  the  affidavit  of  a  deputy  sheriff  in  Alabama,  who 
explained  how  he  made  between  $5000  and  $7000  a 
year,  thanks  to  his  being  permitted  to  arrest  anybody 
on  suspicion.  Everywhere  the  system  works  in  the 
same  manner,  and  nowhere  can  it  defend  its  existence 
except  by  the  forceful  plea  that  it  is  here  and  has  all 
the  backing  that  politics  and  heavy  financial  interests 


THE  FEE  SYSTEM 183 

can  give  it.  The  Prison  Reform  League  delegate  to 
the  American  Prison  Association  congress  held  in 
Seattle,  Wash.,  in  August,  1909,  vainly  endeavored  to 
force  this  particular  issue  to  the  front.  Among  those 
of  his  colleagues  whom  he  interviewed  was  a  southern 
governor,  who  admitted  freely  that  the  system  was 
indefensible,  and  that  the  gravest  scandals  had  arisen 
not  from  the  state's  treatment  of  convicts,  but  from 
that  followed  by  the  counties,  whose  officials  cling 
desperately  to  the  fee  system.  He  declined,  however, 
to  urge  the  question,  declaring  that  it  was  far  from 
popular  with  his  constituents.  A  true  politician's 
reason !  Turn  where  you  will  in  the  investigation  of 
prison  abuses  the  hand  of  politics  will  be  found  up- 
holding those  that  are  least  defensible. 

We  give  herewith  a  statement  by  the  state  presi- 
dent of  the  Southern  California  W.  C.  T.  U.,  who 
speaks  from  long  experience.     It  is  as  follows: 

"  For  many  years  past,  as  an  active  member  of  the 
W.  C.  T.  U.,  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  visiting  the 
Los  Angeles  county  jail,  always  once  a  week  and 
often  more  than  that.  Serving  as  prison  worker  and 
cornty  superintendent  of  Los  Angeles  county  for 
eight  years  I  necessarily  made  the  close  acquaintance 
of  a  large  number  of  prisoners,  and  as  my  presence 
grew  more  and  more  familiar  I  became  the  recipient 
of  many  confidences  that  would  have  been  withheld 
from  a  stranger. 

"My  attention  was  called  at  a  very  early  date  to  the 
fact  that  a  large  number  of  the  inmates  persistently 
claimed  that  they  were  entirely  innocent  of  crime, 
their  only  offense  being  that  work  had  given  out  in 
the  city  and  they  had  packed  their  blankets  in  search 


i84  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

of  employment.  This  statement  was  repeated  to  me 
over  and  over  again,  and  I  have  a  distinct  recollection 
of  one  man  who  assured  me  that  he  had  made  seven 
unsuccessful  attempts  to  get  out  of  the  county,  being 
arrested  on  each  occasion  by  constables  who  asserted 
that  he  was  a  professional  tramp,  whereas  he  was 
making  a  genuine  effort  to  go  elsewhere  and  obtain 
the  employment  he  could  not  get  in  Los  Angeles  or 
its  neighborhood. 

"  So  frequent  were  assertions  of  this  character 
made  to  me  by  inmates  of  the  county  jail,  and  so 
closely  did  they  correspond  that  I  found  it  quite  im- 
possible to  believe  that  all  these  men  were  lying,  and 
my  curiosity  as  to  the  workings  of  the  fee  system, 
under  which  these  prisoners  claimed  they  had  been 
hounded  into  jail,  became  actively  aroused.  From 
the  investigations  I  pursued  I  am  convinced  that  an 
enormous  injustice  is  done  toward  many  entirely  in- 
nocent men,  who  owe  their  incarceration  solely  to  the 
fact  that  the  income  of  country  justices  of  the  peace 
and  constables  depends  entirely  on  the  number  of 
prisoners  they  can  send  to  the  county  jail,  each  of 
whom  means  so  much  clear  profit  in  arrest  fees, 
mileage  and  other  incidentals. 

"A  more  iniquitous  system  cannot  be  conceived. 
The  officers  of  the  law  are  supposed  to  regard  every 
man  as  innocent  until  he  has  been  proved  guilty,  and 
to  endeavor  to  save  the  community  expense  and  fric- 
tion by  preventing  crime  and  harmonizing  threatened 
disputes  rather  than  by  burdening  it  with  the  cost  of 
supporting  large  bodies  of  men  in  compulsory  idle- 
ness. But  under  the  fee  system  the  constable  quickly 
acquires  the  habit  of  regarding  every  poor  man  as  a 


THE  FEE  SYSTEM  185 

possible  source  of  revenue,  and  a  man-hunting-  in- 
stinct inevitably  developes  that  kills  all  sense  of  jus- 
tice. 

"  It  will  be  found  that  the  charges  against  these 
prisoners  are  almost  invariably  of  the  most  trivial  and 
vague  character  —  malicious  mischief,  disturbing  the 
peace,  vagrancy  and  the  like  —  precisely  such  as  rest 
on  the  word  of  the  officer  and  which  a  poor  and 
friendless  man  has  most  difficulty  in  refuting. 

"  For  myself,  and  speaking  from  the  experience  of 
years,  I  am  well  convinced  that  an  immense  injustice 
is  done,  and  one  by  which  the  community  is  a  heavy 
loser  both  financially  and  in  other  ways  of  still  greater 
importance. 

(Signed)  "  Mrs.  Hester  T.  Griffith, 

"  State  president  Southern  California  W.  C.  T.  U." 

Los  Angeles  sheriffs  used  formerly  to  give  rewards 
to  deputies  making  the  greatest  number  of  arrests, 
and  one  well-known  officer  to  this  day  displays  with 
pride  a  golden  star  so  won.  Happily  the  practice  has 
been  discontinued  under  the  existing  administration. 
In  the  fourteenth  annual  report  of  the  New  York 
ijtate  Prison  Commission,  dated  February  23,  1909, 
appears  the  following :  "  A  boy  had  recently  been  dis- 
charged on  parole  from  the  Rochester  industrial 
school  and  had  been  employed  during  the  fall  and 
early  winter  by  a  farmer,  who  did  not  need  his  serv- 
ices for  the  balance  of  the  wiTiter  and  let  him  go. 
The  boy  started  out  to  find  other  work,  which  is  not 
always  easy  to  do  in  the  dead  of  winter  in  the  coun- 
try. He  was  picked  up  by  an  overzealous  constable, 
who  took  him  before  a  rural  justice,  who  adjudged 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


him  a  vagrant  and  sent  him  to  the  county  jail  for  six 
months,  which  would  keep  him  in  prison  the  entire 
spring  and  part  of  the  summer.  Very  few  county 
judges  would  allow  such  a  commitment  to  stand  if 
they  had  jurisdiction  over  it  and  the  matter  was 
brought  to  their  attention.  We  read  about  such  op- 
pression in  some  distant  foreign  lands  and  execrate 
the  governments  that  permit  or  cause  them,  ignorant 
or  unmindful  of  the  conditions  existing  in  our  own 
state.  Police  officials  should  not  be  permitted  to  ar- 
rest citizens  simply  because  they  are  without  work 
and  without  money,  and  magistrates  should  not  be 
permitted  to  send  such  people  to  prison." 

In  conclusion  we  cannot  do  better  than  quote  from 
"  The  Beast  and  the  Jungle,"  the  series  of  articles  in 
Everybody's  Magazine  wherein  Judge  Ben  B.  Lind- 
sey  of  Denver  is  giving  the  history  of  the  struggle 
that  preceded  the  establishment  of  the  juvenile  courts. 
That  he  immediately  found  himself  face  to  face  with 
the  fee  system  will  be  seen  from  the  passage  selected, 
which  is  as  follows: 

"  I  went  to  the  clerk  of  the  court,  Mr.  Hubert  L. 
Shattuck.  '  This  is  all  wrong,'  I  said.  '  It's  all  non- 
sense—  bringing  these  children  in  here  on  criminal 
charges  —  to  be  punished  —  sentenced  to  prison  — 
degraded  for  life ! ' 

"'Well,  judge,'  he  explained,  'we  sometimes  get 
short  on  our  fee  accounts  and  it  helps  to  increase  fees 
in  this  office  to  brin^  the  kids  here,' 

"  It  did.  The  officers  of  the  court  were  paid  so 
much  for  each  conviction  obtained  by  the  court. 
They  received  no  regular  salaries.  When  they  wished 
to  make  up  arrears  of  pay,  they  rounded  up  a  batch 


THE  FEE  SYSTEM  187 

of  youngsters  and  '  put  them  through  '.  The  same 
thing  was  done  in  the  police  court,  the  court  of  the 
justice  of  the  peace  and  the  criminal  court. 

"  It  was  more  than  absurd,  more  than  wrong.  It 
was  an  outrage  against  childhood,  against  society, 
against  justice,  decency  and  common  sense. 

"  I  began  to  search  the  statutes  for  the  laws  in  the 
matter,  to  frequent  the  jails  in  order  to  see  how  the 
children  were  treated  there,  to  compile  statistics  of 
the  cost  to  the  county  of  these  trials  and  the  cost  to 
society  of  this  way  of  making  criminals  of  little  chil- 
dren. And  the  deeper  I  wenf  into  the  matter  the 
more  astounded  I  became. 

"  I  found  boys  in  the  city  jail,  in  cells  reeking  with 
filth  and  crawling  with  vermin,  awaiting  trial  for 
some  such  infantile  offenses  as  these  I  have  described. 
I  fornd  boys  in  the  county  jail,  locked  up  with  men 
of  the  vilest  immorality,  listening  to  obscene  stories, 
subject  to  the  most  degrading  personal  indignities, 
and  taking  lessons  in  a  high  school  of  vice  with  all 
the  receptive  eagerness  of  innocence.  I  found  that 
the  older  boys,  now  almost  confirmed  in  viciousness, 
had  begun  their  careers  as  Tony  Costello  had,  or  these 
burglars  of  the  pigeon  roost.  And  I  found  that  many 
of  the  hardened  criminals  were  merely  the  perfect 
graduates  of  the  system  of  which  I  had  been  a  sort 
of  proud  superintendent." 


CHAPTER  X. 

COUNTY  AND  CITY  JAILS 

Captured  by  the  country  constable  and  convicted 
by  the  country  justice  of  the  peace,  the  prisoner  is 
landed  in  the  county  jail,  which,  with  the  city  jail, 
also  plays  no  inconsiderable  part  in  our  deterrent  sys- 
tem. We  shall  consider  both  in  this  chapter,  but 
before  passing  to  a  description  of  these  establishments 
we  desire,  in  order  to  emphasize  the  gravity  of  the 
situation,  to  call  attention  to  one  fact  of  which  many 
are  ignorant,  viz.,  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  in- 
mates of  our  penal  institutions,  and  especially  of  our 
city  and  county  jails,  are  still  at  that  tender  age  when 
character  is  in  process  of  formation.  And  when  we 
are  told  by  one  of  the  most  conservative  papers  in 
the  country,  the  Los  Angeles  Times,  in  its  editorial 
of  August  i8,  1909,  that  "  the  atmosphere  of  the 
American  jail  reeks  with  coarseness,  vulgarity,  crime 
and  brutishness  ",  it  behooves  us  to  remember  that 
many  of  those  whom  we  subject  to  such  surroundings 
are  the  merest  youths,  just  at  that  stage  of  their 
careers  when  lessons  of  good  or  evil  are  most  readily 
assimilated. 

In  a  recent  article  Lewis  E.  Palmer,  a  special 
writer  for  the  Survey  Press  Bureau,  which  performed 
such  excellent  service  in  its  exposure  of  conditions 
in  Pittsburg,  says :  "  The  surprising  fact  is  that 
about  half  of  America's  offenders  range  between  the 
ages  of  ten  and  thirty.  There  were,  according  to  the 
latest  figures,  26,983  '  boys '  between  twenty  and 
twenty-four,  and  13,886  between  fifteen  and  nineteen, 


COUNTY  AND  CITY  JAILS  189 

and  695  between  ten  and  fourteen."  Here  we  have 
more  than  14,000  not  over  nineteen  years  of  age,  and 
many  of  them  far  younger. 

The  same  writer  continues :  "  According  to  the 
general  policy-  of  the  United  States  at  present,  short 
sentences  in  jails  and  penitentiaries  constitute  by  far 
the  majority  of  punishments.  Over  28  per  cent,  of 
the  prisoners  in  this  country,  according  to  latest 
figures,  were  sentenced  for  under  one  month.  About 
19  per  cent,  received  one  month  sentences,  7.5  per 
cent,  two  months,  and  1 1  per  cent,  three  months  — 
sentences  for  a  large  part  worked  out  in  the  generally 
degrading  influences  of  county  jails  and  penitenti- 
aries." To  which  must  be  added  the  reflection  that 
prior  to  conviction  there  has  been  a  previous  detention 
in  the  equally  degrading  environment  of  our  city  jails. 

For  our  California  readers  these  facts  and  figures 
gather  added  gravity  when  it  is  considered  that,  ac- 
cording to  the  latest  report  of  the  American  Prison 
Association,  the  commitments  in  that  state  are  523.4 
per  100,000  of  the  population,  which  may  be  com- 
pared with  the  fact  that  in  Illinois,  despite  the  ex- 
istence of  that  great  crime  center,  Chicago,  there  are 
only  80.5  per  100,000.  But  the  remarkable  work 
started  in  the  municipal  court  of  Chicago  by  Judge 
McKenzie  Cleland,  and  prosecuted  with  such  success- 
ful vigor  by  those  who  rallied  to  his  aid,  doubtless  is 
largely  answerable  for  Chicago's  favorable  showing. 

Let  it  be  remembered  further  that,  while  it  has 
been  shown  on  the  authority  of  congressional  investi- 
gation and  noted  experts  that  throughout  the  civilized 
world  crime  is  on  the  increase,  this  increase  is  most 
marked  in  the  case  of  juvenile  offenders.  For  exam- 
ple, Massachusetts  recently  reported  that  within  the 


190  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

last  fifteen  years  the  number  of  offenders  under  seven- 
teen years  of  age  had  grown  three  times  as  rapidly 
as  the  population  of  the  state  —  a  shocking  exhibit 
for  a  state  that  has  been  exceptionally  earnest  in  its 
efforts  to  deal  with  crime  along  enlightened  lines. 

It  is  in  view  of  this  fact  that  the  degenerative  in- 
fluences of  our  city  and  county  jails  and  state  peniten- 
tiaries assume  an  importance  of  the  first  magnitude, 
for,  while  it  may  be  thinkable  that  society  can  harden 
its  heart  and  abandon  the  hardened  criminal  to  his 
fate  without  excessive  injury  to  itself,  it  is  not  think- 
able that  it  can  permit  its  youth  to  be  submitted,  in 
increasing  numbers,  to  the  malign  environment  of  our 
penal  institutions  as  they  exist  today,  without  striking 
a  fatal  blow  at  the  very  existence  of  the  nation.  And 
this  is  the  special  phase  of  this  great  question  which 
the  women  must  take  up,  for  the  juvenile  offenders 
are  their  sons,  and  should  be  the  husbands  of  their 
daughters.  It  is  their  sons  who  get  into  trouble  and 
fall  with  growing  frequency  into  the  clutches  of  the 
law;  it  is  their  should-be  husbands  who  grow  vile  in 
the  prison  atmosphere,  acquiring  disease  and  degen- 
eracies that  eliminate  them  from  the  list  of  mar- 
riageable men ;  it  is  they,  as  wives  and  mothers,  who 
suffer  most  keenly  when  the  bread-winner  is  torn 
from  them  and  lodged  behind  the  bars,  often  for  that 
most  absurd  of  absurdities,  inability  to  pay  a  fine. 

We  think  that  Judge  Cleland  hit  the  nail  squarely 
on  the  head  in  saying :  "  When  Senator  Beveridge 
made  the  statement  in  congress  last  year  that  two  mil- 
lion children  were  at  work  in  factories  and  sweat- 
shops, he  should  have  gone  further  and  told  us  how 
many  of  their  fathers  and  mothers  were  locked  up  in 
jails  and  penitentiaries.     That  would  have  been  in- 


COUNTY  AND  CITY  JAILS  191 

formation  certainly  interesting."  A  criticism  that  we 
can  appreciate  who  know  how,  under  our  fee  system, 
would-be  workers  and  supporters  of  families  are 
hounded  into  jail  that  parasites  of  the  most  noxious 
order  may  make  their  mileage  and  arrest  fees;  who 
know  even  how  sheriffs  stimulate  the  man  hunt  by 
offering  rewards  for  the  deputies  that  gather  the 
greatest  number  of  captives  into  the  net. 

We  direct  particular  attention  here,  however,  to 
the  "  boy  "  who,  as  we  have  shown,  figures  to  such  an 
alarming  extent  in  criminal  statistics.  He  passes 
through  the  Fagin  schools  of  the  city  and  county 
jails,  and  presently  we  have  him  in  the  penitentiary. 
There  the  term  of  detention,  and  the  consequent  sepa- 
ration of  the  sexes,  is  far  longer ;  and  there  the  edu- 
cation in  crime,  and  in  vices  that  are  themselves  the 
deadliest  forms  of  crime,  is  completed.  There  he 
rounds  out  the  education  that  fits  him  to  become  a 
chronic  tramp  and  hobo;  a  man  who  never  marries, 
and  who  floods  the  country  with  degenerate  vices  that 
threaten  the  very  existence  of  the  nation. 

All  life  hangs  together;  we  need  no  one  to  tell  us 
that.  We  know  well  that  the  prison  is  but  part  of 
the  great  social  question ;  that,  as  a  general  rule,  pov- 
erty is  the  parent  and  the  slum  the  kindergarten  of 
vice.  But  we  also  know  that,  while  these  prepare  the 
soil,  it  is  the  administration  of  our  criminal  law  that 
plants  the  seed  and  supplies  the  tropical  conditions 
that  bring  it  to  the  instant  maturity  of  crime.  We 
know  that  the  yielding  to  crime  can  be  traced  in  large 
measure  to  unsound  nerves  and  weak  wills  inherited 
from  parents  who  themselves  were  brought  up  in  un- 
sound surroundings ;  and  that,  on  the  average,  it  is 
the  feeble,  those  with  less  than  the  average  resistance 


192  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

power,  who  succumb.  We  know  that  man,  liaving 
slowly  evolved  from  savagery,  is  ever  subject  to  the 
drag  of  his  past,  urging  him  to  revert  to  the  lower 
and  easier  standards  of  primitive  times.  But  that 
makes  it  all  the  more  imperative  that  society,  if  only 
from  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  should  not  set 
the  trap  into  which,  for  the  weakling,  fall  is  as  cer- 
tain as  the  law  of  gravitation.  And  it  is  to  be  re- 
marked that  while  tens  of  thousands  of  self-sacrificing 
women,  as  well  as  men,  are  grappling  strenuously 
today  with  the  slum  and  factory  conditions  that  make 
for  viciousness,  few  are  concerning  themselves  with 
the  jail  conditions  that  render  crime  and  the  deadliest 
of  vices  inevitable. 

With  these  preliminary  observations  we  proceed  to 
a  direct  consideration  of  the  conditions  generally 
prevalent  in  our  county  and  city  jails,  where  tens 
of  thousands  of  our  fellow  citizens,  of  both  sexes  and 
of  all  ages  and  social  grades,  find  themselves  detained, 
many  being  only  accused  of  crime  or  petty  misde- 
meanor, while  others  are  merely  held  there  as 
witnesses. 

Jail  conditions  are  the  subject  of  continual  crit- 
icism, almost  invariably  unfavorable,  in  the  daily 
press,  but  a  general  birdseye  view  of  the  situation 
can  be  obtained  only  by  referring  to  some  exhaustive 
report,  such  as  that  published  in  1907  by  the  Ameri- 
can Prison  Association.  On  that  we  shall  draw, 
therefore,  at  unusual  length,  for  it  covered  the  widest 
area  and  was  most  thorough,  the  committee  inform- 
ing the  congress  that  it  had  collected  and  made  ab- 
stracts of  the  laws  of  all  states  relating  to  county 
jails,  and  had  gathered  more  than  289  schedules  from 
thirty-seven   states   and   territories.      It   may   be   re- 


COUNTY  AND  CITY  JAILS  193 

garded,  therefore,  as  exceptionally  authoritative,  and 
it  was  rendered  just  two  years  ago.  Tasks  of  such 
magnitude  can  be  undertaken  only  at  rare  intervals, 
and  this  report  is  the  most  instructive  guide  we  are 
likely  to  have  for  years  to  come. 

The  report  begins  with  a  consideration  of  "  Condi- 
tions of  Security  ".  Here,  and  here  only,  is  it  favor- 
able, the  statement  being  that  "  a  few  jails  are  re- 
ported to  be  too  badly  constructed  to  hold  dangerous 
criminals ;  but  apparently  nearly  all  are  secure  or  con- 
tain steel  cages  for  special  cases.  There  does  not 
seem  to  be  pressing  need  of  attention  and  reform  in 
this  matter.  If  the  only  or  chief  purpose  of  jails  were 
to  keep  wild  beasts  in  cages,  most  of  them  are  well 
enough  adapted  to  this  purpose." 

Of  "  Conditions  of  Health  "  the  committee  remarks 
that  "  John  Howard,  with  very  inferior  scientific 
knowledge,  tried  to  make  England  realize  this  point 
—  the  importance  of  sanitation  —  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  neglect  of  it  has  been  the  responsible 
cause  of  thousands  of  deaths  —  of  sheriffs,  jailers, 
judges  and  honest  work  people.  Even  if  the  uncon- 
victed prisoners,  many  innocent  of  crime,  could  be 
disregarded,  public  interest  in  the  hygienic  conditions 
of  jails  is  involved." 

Under  the  head  of  "  Food "  this  conclusion  is 
reached :  "  Speaking  with  all  due  respect  of  county 
officials  we  affirm,  upon  our  evidence,  that  they  are 
not  usually  competent  persons  to  draw  up  a  dietary 
for  prisoners  of  any  kind.  And  as  to  the  customary 
mode  of  serving  food  we  can  use  no  milder  phrase 
than  that  it  is  revolting  and  demoralizing,  and  often 
dangerous  to  health.  It  would  seem  that  the  average 
county  authorities  think  that  anything  is  good  enough 


194  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

for  a  prisoner  and  that  the  word  '  prisoner '  means  a 
condemned  criminal." 

Of  "  clothing,  and  especially  underclothing ",  the 
committee  has  little  to  say,  except  that,  as  regards 
supplies  furnished  by  the  county,  "  the  replies  reveal 
inequality  and  partiality  which  shock  the  sense  of 
equity  and  justice ".  But  on  "  beds,  bedding  and 
cell  furniture ",  it  is  extremely  eloquent,  saying, 
among  other  things :  "  Spartan  simplicity  reigns  in 
the  furniture  of  cells ;  a  table,  a  chair,  an  iron  frame, 
hinged  to  swing  against  the  wall,  or  a  canvas  ham- 
mock, occasionally  a  shelf  and  a  mirror.  Often  we 
must  imagine  bunk  over  bunk,  in  the  same  cell  or 
cage,  crowded  until  the  horrors  of  stench  and  suffo- 
cation are  indescribable.  Simplicity  is  desirable ;  there 
is  no  call  for  luxury;  but  there  is  no  reason  nor  fair- 
ness in  subjecting  unconvicted  citizens  to  dirt  and 
crowding,  and  thus  punishing  them  more  severelx 
than  the  felons  sent  to  a  state  prison,  and  that  even 
before  trial,  while  they  are  legally  and  presumptively 
innocent."  And  again:  "  Under  an  open  jail  system 
the  filthiest,  vilest  prisoner  punishes  and  tortures 
those  who  have  not  yet  sunk  to  his  level,  for  the  ver- 
min crawl  from  him  to  others,  and  the  stench  from 
his  dirty  bedding  defiles  all  other  cells  and  corridors. 
Under  an  isolation  cell  system  this  could  be  pre- 
vented ;  with  the  open  structure,  practically  universal, 
it  is  impossible  to  prevent  it.  This  is  true  of  the 
lockups  of  many  cities  as  well.    The  situation  is  vile." 

On  the  question  of  "  ventilation "  the  committee 
professes  itself  insufficiently  scientific  to  give  an  ex- 
pert opinion,  but  on  "  Light "  it  says :  "  The  very 
structure  of  the  ordinary  jail  is  radically  wrong  and 
offends  against  the  laws  of  health.     From  ocean  to 


COUNTY  AND  CITY  JAILS  195 

ocean  one  uniform  plan  has  been  slavishly  copied 
from  bad  models  —  a  cage  of  cells  surrounded  by  a 
corridor.  Into  this  corridor  are  emptied  the  foul 
breath  and  foul  language  of  the  occupants  of  dark- 
ened cells.  It  becomes  a  common  reservoir  of  deadly 
elements.  The  light  of  windows  and  the  pure  air  do 
not  enter  the  cell  directly,  but  only  through  this  cor- 
ridor. No  man  builds  a  pig  pen  or  a  hen  coop  on 
such  a  monstrous  plan.  The  jailer's  residence  adjoin- 
ing always  admits  sunshine  and  air  directly  into  each 
sleeping  and  living-room." 

"  Exercise "  is  treated  in  the  following  emphatic 
language :  "  We  hear,  in  almost  all  the  reports,  the 
dull,  monotonous,  maddening  tramp  of  prisoners 
aimlessly  walking  up  and  down  the  corridor  of  the 
county  jails  of  our  land.  Of  course,  this  tramp  is  not 
at  the  specific  command  of  the  jailers ;  the  slouching 
march  over  the  same  dead  level  of  stone  floor  is  the 
only  means  of  exercise,  and  in  that  sense  compulsory. 
In  Francois  Coppe's  story,  '  Le  Coupable ',  we  have 
a  vivid  and  dramatic  picture  of  the  physical  and 
psychical  effects  of  this  irrational,  aimless,  maddening 
form  of  exercise.  Let  anyone  of  us  imagine  himself 
waiting,  perhaps  for  many  months,  perhaps  even  for 
years,  with  no  exercise  but  the  tramp,  tramp  in  the 
close  and  dark  corridor  of  a  county  jail.  It  is  the 
path  straight  to  lunacy.  Why  not  have  walled  yards 
in  the  open  air,  partly  sheltered  from  rain,  covered 
over  with  steel  wire  to  prevent  escape  ?  It  is  simple ; 
it  is  easy;  it  is  human  justice;  it  is  social  interest  and 
wisdom.  But  it  is  rarely  thought  of.  Anyone  who 
has  seen  French  jails  of  the  better  sort  knows  how 
easy  it  would  be  to  correct  this  defect." 


196 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

Considerable  space  naturally  is  given  to  the  ques- 
tion of  "  crowding  ".  The  declaration  is  made  that 
"  the  modern,  up-to-date,  scientific  standard  is  that 
each  prisoner  awaiting  trial  must  have  a  decent  and 
spacious  cell  to  himself,  without  corrupting  and  de- 
grading contact  with  criminals ;  and  that  when  two  in- 
mates are  in  company  there  is  crowding  in  the  hy- 
gienic and  moral  sense  ".  And  the  report  continues : 
"  Judged  by  this  modern  standard,  almost  every  jail 
reported  to  us  requires  to  be  rebuilt  on  a  new  plan; 
almost  all  are  liable  to  be  crowded,  if  there  are  more 
than  two  or  three  pirsoners  at  one  time."  The  returns 
are  reported  as  covering  an  immense  variety  of  condi- 
tions, "  from  the  almost  entirely  empty  rural  institu- 
tion, in  a  prohibition  county  of  Kansas,  where  the  only 
inmate  was  a  man  who  had  kept  a  '  blind  pig ',  to  the 
ill-smelling  city  jails,  where,  at  times,  the  cells  are 
packed  at  night  like  the  Lower  deck  of  a  slave  ship, 
and  where  the  corridors  afford  scant  room  for  the 
crowd  of  men  who  swarm  in  there  during  the  day. 
An  average  for  the  whole  country  would  mean  noth- 
ing." The  following  examples  are  then  given,  the 
report  being  submitted,  it  must  be  remembered,  just 
two  years  ago : 

In  Birmingham,  Alabama,  we  find  reported  240  men 
in  72  cells  and  25  women  in  10  cells.  The  cells  are 
8  by  9  feet.     There  was  i  boy. 

In  Denver,  Colorado,  there  were  189  men  in  90  cells 
and  22  women  in  20  cells,  6x9  feet. 

In  Los  Angeles,  California,  there  were  135  men  in 
86  cells;  there  were  30  cells  designed  for  four  men 
each  and  48  cells  designed  for  two  men  each,  8x8  feet 
and  8x6  feet. 


COUNTY  AND  CITY  JAILS  197 

In  Colorado  Springs,  Colorado,  there  were  55  men 
in  19  cells,  and  4  women  in  i  cellroom. 

In  Stockton,  California,  there  were  6  "  drunks  "  in 
I  cell,  15x18  feet,  and  40  prisoners  in  26  cells. 

In  Washington,  D.  C,  the  total  capacity  claimed  by 
the  authorities  was  320,  while  the  total  population  was 
474  — .  a  bad  example  for  the  capital  city  of  the  nation. 

In  Chicago,  Illinois,  there  were  434  men  in  368  cells, 
with  39  boys  in  a  congregation  by  themselves. 

In  Indianapolis,  Indiana,  143  men  and  16  women  in 
54  cells.  There  were  2  boys,  and  children  were  kept 
in  the  women's  department. 

In  Terre  Haute,  Indiana,  there  were  73  men  in  35 
cells,  and  the  visitor  says  there  have  been  1 10  at  a  time 
in  this  jail. 

In  Marion,  Iowa,  a  small  jail,  built  with  four  cells 
for  men,  had  20  men. 

Of  the  rural  and  village  jails  it  is  remarked  that 
they  "  usually  have  space  enough  for  health,  but  they 
are  among  the  worst  for  vile  familiarities  of  associa- 
tion. The  ordinary  standard  for  judging  whether  a 
jail  is  crowded  or  not  is  too  bad  for  a  stable  or  cow 
shed,  much  less  for  human  beings.  This  common 
standard  is  that  so  long  as  men  can  find  room  in  bunk, 
hammock  or  on  stone  floor,  with  a  newspaper  for  a 
mattress,  the  place  is  spacious  enough.  This  is  man- 
slaughter." 

We  must  again  remind  our  readers  that  incarcera- 
tion in  a  city  or  county  jail  by  no  means  implies  that 
the  prisoner  is  guilty  of  any  offense,  the  jails  being 
used  indiscriminately,  and  most  improperly,  alike  for 
those  convicted,  for  those  who  in  the  eye  of  the  law 
are  innocent,  since  they  have  not  been  brought  to  trial, 
and  for  many  who  are  held  merely  as  witnesses.     A. 


198  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

good  illustration  of  this  we  take  from  an  address  by 
Dr.  H.  H.  Hart  of  Chicago,  given  in  the  records  of 
the  congress,  from  the  proceedings  of  which  we  have 
quoted  so  freely.  He  says :  "  The  constitution  and 
the  law  say  a  man  who  is  accused  of  crime  shall  be 
deemed  innocent  until  he  is  proved  guilty.  He  is  en- 
titled to  humane  and  reasonable  comfort ;  to  be  kept 
from  unnecessary  exposure  to  disease  and  danger  or 
injury  to  health  or  person  or  morals.  He  may  be  an 
innocent  man.  He  may  be  like  the  little  Greek  boy  I 
saw  today,  who  looks  to  be  not  more  than  14  or  15 
years  of  age.  He  is  held  in  the  jail  of  Cook  county. 
What  is  his  crime?  He  is  the  only  Greek  boy  that 
can  be  found  that  can  testify  against  these  padrones; 
and  the  noble  county  of  Cook  is  holding  this  child  in 
jail,  exposed  to  all  kinds  of  moral  contagion,  until 
such  time  as  it  gets  ready  to  put  him  on  the  witness 
stand  to  prove  a  case.  Some  inmates  of  county  jails 
are  held  as  witnesses.  Some  are  insane.  I  remember 
seeing  five  insane  men  in  a  jail  in  Dubuque,  Iowa  — 
sick  men,  whose  only  place  of  refuge  was  a  dark, 
damp,  unwholesome,  unsanitary  jail,  and  the  only  care 
given  was  such  as  was  kindly  volunteered  by  their  as- 
sociates, the  other  prisoners."  No  words  could  add 
to  the  eloquence  of  these  facts,  and  it  is  not  of  Chi- 
cago and  Dubuque  alone  that  the  story  could  be  told. 
At  the  congress  held  the  following  year  at  Rich- 
mond, Va.,  the  association  paid  little  attention  to  city 
and  county  jails,  doubtless  considering  that  enough 
time  had  been  devoted  to  the  subject  at  its  previous 
meeting,  but  Dr.  Julian  W.  Sloan  of  Richmond  gave' 
a  description  of  a  visit  he  had  paid  to  the  local  city 
jail  and  spoke  of  "  the  miserably  filthy,  unhygienic 
conditions  I  witnessed  there  ".     The  president  in  his 


COUNTY  AND  CITY  JAILS  199 

Dpening  address  also  referred  to  the  typical  county 
jail,  declaring  that  "  at  every  prison  congress  con- 
demnation, dire  and  fateful,  has  fallen  upon  its  moss- 
covered  roof,  but  it  smiles  and  smiles  and  is  a  villain 
still  ".  The  1909  congress,  held  in  Seattle,  listened  to 
only  one  paper  on  the  question,  by  W.  A.  Gates,  sec- 
retary of  the  California  State  Board  of  Charities  and 
Corrections,  in  which  he  most  severely  criticised  ex- 
isting conditions. 

We  invite  our  readers  to  contrast  the  accounts  given 
above,  not  by  us,  but  by  the  special  committee  and  in- 
dividual members  of  the  American  Prison  Associa- 
tion, with  the  description  of  London's  city  jails  as  it 
appears  in  Mr.  McAdoo's  article  previously  referred 
to.     He  says: 

"  The  station  houses  are  so  much  better  than  those 
in  New  York  that  comparison  would  be  odious.  The 
worst  station  house  in  New  York  would  not  be  per- 
mitted for  a  day,  and  the  best  station  houses  are  not 
equal  to  the  good  ones  in  London.  They  are  very 
plainly,  substantially,  but  comfortably  furnished,  and 
the  sanitary  conditions  are  excellent.  The  cells  have 
large,  high  ceilings,  are  well  ventilated  and  lighted 
and  the  walls  are  tiled.  They  are  never  crowded  with 
prisoners.  Drunken  men  and  women  are  well  taken 
care  of.  They  are  never  placed  in  berths  for  fear  they 
may  roll  out,  but  are  carefully  placed  on  the  floor.  As 
the  station  houses,  like  the  other  buildings,  are  not 
high,  there  is  plenty  of  direct  fresh  air  coming  in  at 
the  top.  Indeed,  the  cells  are  much  more  comfortable 
than  many  rooms  at  English  hotels  where  I  have 
stopped,  and  they  actually  have  a  push  button  to  sum- 
mon assistance.  The  cell  is  furnished  with  running 
water  and  the  corridor  is  well  lighted  from  the  out- 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


side.  The  waiting-rooms  are  clean  and  sanitary  and 
with  plenty  of  seating-  capacity.  Indeed,  all  unfortu- 
nates are  handled  with  humanity  and  charity.  The 
women's  prison  in  the  station  house  in  London  is  thor- 
oughly separated  from  those  of  the  men." 

Compare  these  conditions  with  those  in  any  ordinary 
American  city  jail ;  conditions  exploited  so  thoroughly 
by  the  daily  press  and  so  notorious  that  a  detailed  ac- 
count would  be  waste  of  space.  Consider,  in  the  first 
place,  that  a  city  jail  is  solely  a  place  for  the  detention 
of  those  awaiting  trial ;  that  every  one  of  its  inmates 
is  supposed  to  be  innocent  until  the  verdict  has  been 
given  against  him;  and  that  into  this  mere  house  of 
detention  are  flung  promiscuously,  and  often  with  the 
greatest  brutality,  persons  of  both  sexes  and  all  ages, 
drunk  and  sober,  chaste  and  wanton,  presumably  in- 
nocent boys  and  girls  and  hardened  criminals.  There 
they  pass  the  night,  and  often  more  than  one  night, 
under  conditions  that  beggar  description ;  sitting  on 
beiiches,  frequently  standing  up  for  lack  of  room,  in  a 
reek  of  physical  and  moral  filth  that  the  worst  slum 
can  hardly  match.  And  consider,  further,  that  all  this 
is  done  under  the  supposedly  sheltering  aegis  of  the 
law,  whose  boast  is  that  it  metes  out  justice  and  ex- 
ists, at  enormous  cost,  for  the  protection  of  society. 

"  For  three  years  there  has  been  through  the  courts 
and  the  streets  a  dreary  procession  of  citizens  with 
broken  heads  and  bruised  bodies,  against  few  of  whom 
was  violence  needed  to  effect  an  arrest.  Many  of 
tnem  had  done  nothing  to  deserve  arrest."  We  gave 
the  quotation,  at  somewhat  greater  length,  in  Chapter 
VIII.  It  is  from  the  pen  of  another  New  York  police 
commissioner.  In  the  same  chapter  we  gave  the  full 
and  careful  figures  compiled  by  a  former  governor  of 


I  COUNTY  AND  CITY  JAILS  20i 

Illinois,  showing  that  in  the  city  of  Chicago  there  were 
in  one  year  50,432  arrests,  from  which  there  came  only 
2,192  commitments.  Think  of  the  suffering  such  fig- 
ures express ;  of  the  indignity,  always  ruinous  to  char- 
acter, that  they  imply ;  of  the  fact  that  the  victims  are 
almost  without  exception  from  the  poorer  classes,  since 
the  rich  can  furnish  bail,  and  remember  that  it  is  pre- 
cisely the  poorer  classes  who,  from  their  pernicious 
environment,  have  the  least  resistance  power.  And 
reflect,  further,  that  we  have  shown  England  as  the 
one  country  that  reports  a  diminution  of  crime,  while 
the  American  record,  and  notably  in  the  matter  of 
crimes  of  violence,  grows  continually  worse. 

As  has  been  pointed  out  by  one  well-known  writer, 
Heman  W.  Chaplin,  we  arrest  tliousands  of  persons 
for  minor  offenses  who  in  England  are  merely  sum- 
moned to  appear  in  court,  and  thus  are  saved  the 
ignominy  of  a  night  in  jail.  He  adds  that  in  not  one 
01  a  hundred  such  cases  would  the  accused  fail  to 
present  himself,  and  that  in  several  states  efforts  have 
been  made  to  follow  England's  pre-eminently  sensible 
example,  but  that  "  the  interests  of  officers'  fees  in- 
trench strongly  the  present  practice."  Here  once 
more  you  have  the  real  key  to  the  actual  and  inexr 
pressibly  repulsive  situation. 

With  the  hardship  wrought  by  the  arrest  of  men 
and  women  whose  attendance  in  court  could  be  secured 
by  simple  summons  there  naturallly  connects  itself  the 
gross  injustice  worked  upon  the  poor  by  imprisoning 
them  when  they  are  unable  to  pay  the  fine  imposed. 
Even  the  most  conservative  section  of  the  press  has 
condemned  this  practice  times  without  number,  point- 
ing out  that  it  makes  poverty  a  crime  and  confers  on 
tne  rich  a  special  and  most  valuable  privilege.    When 


202 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

a  corporation  or  a  rich  man's  chauflfeur  is  assessed  a 
trifling  fine  a  chorus  of  disapprobation  goes  up,  the 
punishment  being  rightly  branded  farcical.  But  the 
fact  that  vast  numbers  of  our  citizens  are  put  to  great 
humiliation,  suffering  and  loss,  simply  because  they 
have  no  money,  does  not  receive  by  any  means  the 
attention  it  deserves,  for  the  wrongs  of  the  poor  are 
not  heralded  abroad  with  any  imposing  flourish  of 
trumpets.  The  injustice  is  so  universal,  and  so  uni- 
versally admitted,  that  it  seems  idle  to  cite  authorities, 
but  the  following  by  Judge  McKenzie  Cleland,  of  the 
municipal  court  of  Chicago,  puts  the  case  so  forcibly, 
both  from  the  standpoint  of  the  individual  and  society, 
that  we  consider  it  worthy  of  reproduction.    He  says : 

"  I  believe  that  the  sending  of  thousands  of  men 
and  women  to  the  House  of  Correction  every  year, 
merely  because  they  are  too  poor  to  pay  a  fine,  is  bar- 
barous injustice  and  a  wasteful  and  extravagant 
method  of  raising  revenue.  I  believe  that  locking  up 
a  man  who  has  committed  a  trivial  offense,  and  feed- 
ing and  clothing  him  at  public  expense  while  his  wife 
and  children  suffer  for  the  necessaries  of  life,  is  pun- 
ishing the  innocent  more  than  the  guilty.  I  believe 
that  sending  a  first  offender  to  jail  to  reform  him  is 
no  wiser  than  sending  a  child  to  the  smallpox  hos- 
pital to  be  cured  of  measles."  The  latter  part  of  the 
quotation  deals,  it  is  true,  with  another  branch  of  this 
question,  but  we  have  thought  it  right  to  give  the 
passage  intact. 

Try  to  think  yourself  into  some  faint  comprehension 
of  the  disease-breeding,  character-destroying,  crime- 
developing  features  of  the  picture  presented.  Link 
this  with  your  recollection  of  the  wealth  of  testimony 
we  have  offered  respecting  illegal  arrests,  the  fee  sys- 


COUNTY  AND  CITY  JAILS  203 

tern  and  other  forces  manipulated  by  the  authorities 
apparently  for  the  purpose  of  insuring  it  that  the 
demand  for  larger  and  larger  jails  shall  not  be  allowed 
to  slacken.  And  consider  that,  at  present,  none  save  a 
handful  of  reformers  raises  even  a  murmur  —  because 
the  nation  at  large  is  of  opinion  that  anything  is  good 
enough  for  a  criminal  or  one  suspected  of  crime. 
Dominated  by  the  deterrent  philosophy  we  dream  that 
crime  can  be  stopped  by  making  everything  connected 
with  it  the  acme  of  misery,  and  we  ignore  the  obvious 
fact  that,  like  everything  else  in  nature,  it  has  a  cause 
and  that  only  by  removal  of  such  cause  can  cure  be 
effected. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

WHAT  GOOD  DOES  IT  DO? 

We  have  now  traced  the  deterrent  principle 
throughout  its  principal  manifestations.  We  have 
seen  it  on  the  gallows,  in  the  torture  chamber,  accom- 
panying the  convict  at  his  meals  and  throughout  his 
daily  task  in  the  penitentiary  and  southern  camps. 
We  have  examined  it  as  exemplihed  by  the  entire  atti- 
tude of  the  police  toward  the  public ;  the  illegality  of 
many  of  their  arrests,  their  administration  of  the 
"  third  degree  "  and  other  arbitrary  acts.  Finally  we 
reviewed  it  in  connection  with  the  fee  system  and  the 
conduct  of  our  county  and  city  jails.  At  every  step 
we  encountered  conditions  such  as  in  themselves 
would  meet  with  universal  denunciation  were  they 
not  defended  with  the  plea  that  men  must  be  deterred 
from  crime.  Since  ultimately  every  tree  must  be 
judged  by  its  fruits  the  practical  question  arises  — 
what  good  do  these  admittedly  cruel  and  often  illegal 
practices  do? 

In  the  Arena  magazine  of  October,  1908,  Dr. 
George  Allen  England  brought  forward  a  long  array 
of  figures  to  show  that  from  8000  to  10,000  homicides 
take  place  in  the  United  States  annually,  and  that  in 
this  undesirable  rivalry  we  lead  all  countries  with  the 
exception  of  Russian  Poland,  where  violence  is  largely 
due  to  political  disturbances,  and  the  Calabriin  and 
Sicilian  districts  of  the  Italian  kingdom.  Chicago 
murders  six  times  as  many  annually  as  does  the  far 
larger  metropolis  of  London  and  eight  times  more 


WHAT  GOOD  DOES  IT  DO?  205 

than  does  Paris.  In  Georgia  alone  more  killings  take 
place  than  in  the  entire  British  empire. 

No  less  than  3914  murders  were  committed  in  the 
south  during  the  year  1906,  while  in  the  central  di- 
vision of  the  country  the  murders  numbered  only 
2843,  and  in  New  England,  a  densely  populated  manu- 
facturing district,  the  total  was  only  254.  In  our 
chapter  on  convict  camps  we  laid  special  stress  on  the 
brutality  with  which  that  which  professes  to  call  itself 
the  "  law  "  is  being  administered  in  the  south.  Does 
it  not  look  as  if  here  again  we  have  an  illustration  of 
the  trrth  that  brutality  begets  brutality?  And  it  may 
be  remarked  incidentally  that  those  whom  it  has  been 
the  fashion  to  speak  of  as  "  low,  ignorant  foreigners  ", 
and  whom  we  glibly  charge  with  being  answerable 
for  the  swelling  tide  of  crime,  are  fewest  in  the  south 
and  most  numerous  in  New  England. 

Similarly  a  well-known  southerner,  Judge  Thomas 
of  Alabama,  in  an  address  delivered  recently  at  Nash- 
ville, Tenn.,  and  backed  by  a  formidable  array  of  fig- 
ures, presented  a  most  alarming  picture  of  the  preva- 
lence of  homicide  in  the  United  States.  His  statistics 
showed  that  there  were  20  homicides  per  million  in- 
habitants in  Australia  in  the  year  1905 ;  14  per  million 
in  Japan;  12.4  per  million  in  Canada;  8.4  in  England 
and  Wales,  and  4.6  in  Germany,  the  figures  for  the 
last  named  being  those  of  1899.  As  against  these  the 
United  States  had  115  homicides  per  million  inhab- 
itants in  1905  and  118  in  1906.  That  is  to  say,  this 
country  had  six  times  as  many  homicides  in  1906  as 
had  Australia,  which  most  nearly  approached  our  rec- 
ord. Judge  Thomas  showed  further  that,  while  the 
record  of  Italy  and  Mexico  was  even  blacker  than 


ao6 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

ours,  conditions  were  improving  in  both  countries; 
whereas,  as  demonstrated  by  the  statistics  for  1905 
and  1906,  in  the  United  States  they  were  growing 
worse.  By  an  examination  of  the  figures  for  the  New 
England  states  he  also  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that 
the  vast  number  of  homicides  in  this  country  cannot 
be  laid  at  the  door  of  the  immigrant  class. 

The  figures  compiled  by  the  Chicago  Tribune,  and 
referred  to  in  our  chapter  on  capital  punishment,  may 
be  cited  appropriately  here  once  more.  They  show 
that  in  the  United  States  at  large,  in  1881,  there  were 
only  1266  murders  and  homicides,  and  that  by  1908 
the  number  had  increased  to  8952.  The  increase  was 
almost  steady,  year  by  year ;  but  it  may  be  noted,  as 
showing  the  influence  of  economic  conditions,  that  the 
high-water  mark  was  reached  in  the  three  years  fol- 
lowing the  panic  of  1893,  which  was  succeeded  by 
lengthy  financial  depression. 

S.  S.  McClure,  in  "  The  Tammanyizing  of  a  Civ- 
ilization " —  McChire's  Magazine,  November,  1909  — 
puts  the  matter  thus :  "  The  murder  rate  in  the 
United  States  is  from  ten  to  twenty  times  greater 
than  the  murder  rate  of  the  British  empire  and  other 
northwestern  countries.  The  northwestern  countries 
of  Europe,  which  are  the  only  nations  worthy  of  com- 
parison with  the  United  States  in  their  civilization, 
would  require  nearly  a  billion  inhabitants  —  that  is, 
more  than  half  of  the  population  of  the  world  —  in 
order  to  bring  the  number  of  their  murders  up  to  that 
of  the  United  States,  with  its  eighty  to  ninety  millions 
of  population.  Canada  would  require  a  billion  and  a 
quarter  to  have  as  many  murders  as  the  United  States 
has  at  the  present  time.     Murder  hsis  increased  many 


WHAT  GOOD  DOES  IT  DO?  207 

times  as  rapidly  as  population  for  the  last  twenty-five 
years.  During  the  past  fifteen  years  the  number  of 
murders  in  the  United  States  has  been,  according  to 
the  annual  records  of  the  Chicago  Tribune,  133,192. 
The  entire  number  of  men  in  the  union  army  who 
were  killed  in  battle  or  died  of  wounds  was  110,070; 
in  both  the  union  and  confederate  forces  it  was  183,- 
348."     And  he  adds  this  pregnant  reflection : 

"This  insecurity  of  life  in  the  United  States  is  but 
one  indication  of  the  lapse  from  civilization  that  the 
whole  population  is  suffering,  as  a  result  of  its  gov- 
ernment by  criminals.  The  huge  size  of  our  machin- 
ery of  justice  is  certainly  due  to  the  amount  of  crime 
it  has  to  deal  with.  New  York  and  Illinois  have  to- 
gether a  population  under  14,000,000;  these  two  states 
require  572  judges  in  their  courts.  England  and 
Wales  have,  a  population  of  about  32,000,000 ;  over 
this  population  there  are  92  judges  of  the  same  gen- 
eral rank  as  that  of  the  572  who  serve  in  New  York 
and  Illinois  —  that  is,  the  two  American  states  have 
about  fourteen  times  as  many  judges  in  proportion  to 
their  population  as  England  and  Wales." 

We  call  special  attention  to  the  phrase  in  the  pre- 
ceding paragraph,  "  government  by  criminals  ".  It 
expresses  a  fact,  and  it  is  this  fact  that  makes  the 
problem  of  crime  and  criminals  the  very  one  that  this 
nation  must  solve  if  it  is  to  survive.  For  this  re- 
public is  organized  on  the  majority  principle,  and, 
however  vicious  may  be  the  laws  enacted,  they  be- 
come part  of  the  nation's  life  when  passed  by  the 
majority's  representatives.  If,  by  one  means  or  an- 
other, this  law-enacting  majority  is  obtained  by  meth- 
ods  that   give   the   criminal   element   control    of   the 


2o8  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

situation  the  intelligent  and  upright  minority  will  find 
itself  ultimately  forced  to  repudiate  all  such  legisla- 
tion, and  there  will  be  civil  war. 

Now,  there  is  not  the  slightest  question  that  it  is 
the  special  business  of  the  political  machine  to  carry 
elections  at  all  and  any  cost,  and  that  in  numerous 
cities,  and  those  the  largest  in  the  land,  the  criminal 
class  —  including  an  enormous  army  that  remains  un- 
convicted but  makes  its  living  by  pursuing  essentially 
nefarious  occupations  —  is  utilized  for  this  very  pur- 
pose. In  the  article  just  referred  to  Mr.  McClure 
examines  in  detail  the  cases  of  New  York,  Chicago 
and  San  Francisco,  which  he  sums  up  with  the  fol- 
lowing comment :  "  It  is  not  necessary  to  go  beyond 
the  examples  of  these  three  well-known  cities.  The 
same  political  forces  engaged  in  degrading  civilization 
into  barbarism  are  at  work  with  general  success  in 
all  the  larger  cities  of  the  country.  The  fight  against 
them  is  the  greatest  single  governmental  problem  of 
today.  As  Bishop  Potter  well  said,  there  is  abso- 
lutely nothing  on  earth  similar  to  the  degraded  rule  in 
American  cities.  Many  nations  and  cities  have  races 
of  inferior  breed  or  training  among  their  population, 
but  nowhere  else  is  the  control  of  the  government 
taken  over  by  criminals,  organized  to  break  the  law, 
for  the  purpose  of  exploiting  the  appetite  and  criminal 
weaknesses  of  such  populations  for  their  own  profit. 
In  the  meanwhile  the  stock  of  the  immigrants  enter- 
ing the  United  States,  and  especially  its  cities,  is 
growing  constantly  worse.  Drawn  first  from  the 
higher  and  more  intelligent  types  of  northwestern 
Europe,  our  immigration  has  degenerated  constantly 
to  the  poorest  breeds  of  the  eastern  and  southern  sec- 


WHAT  GOOD  DOES  IT  DO? 209 

tions  of  the  continent.  We  have  made  the  United 
States  an  asykim  for  the  oppressed  and  incompetent 
of  all  nations,  and  have  put  the  government  into  the 
hands  of  the  inmates  of  the  asyhim.  We  are  now 
permitting  the  country  to  become  the  Botany  Bay  of 
the  world.  The  most  incompetent  and  vicious  settle 
down  in  our  great  cities ;  and  there  an  army  of  polit- 
ical criminals,  like  Tammany,  trained  by  half  a  cen- 
tury of  political  crime,  exploit  and  corrupt  and  de- 
grade them,  and  with  them  our  whole  civilization." 

It  is  a  situation  that  must  be  bravely  faced,  but  the 
foregoing  passage  omits  what  seems  to  us  the  most 
important  factor  in  the  problem.  Taking  social  ar- 
rangements as  they  are  today  it  never  must  be  for- 
gotten that  politics,  which  to  the  ordinary  citizen, 
occupied  with  his  private  afifairs,  are  but  a  side  issue, 
are  to  this  vast  army  matter  of  life  and  death.  In 
every  campaign  the  very  bread  and  butter  of  this 
army  is  at  stake ;  let  it  lose  the  battle,  and  the  im- 
munity that  victory  insures,  and  it  is  out  on  the 
world,  facing  starvation.  Soldiers  so  situated  consti- 
tute the  fiercest  kind  of  fighting  force,  that  will  strug- 
gle with  a  tenacity  of  which  the  well-to-do  citizen, 
who  is  not  face  to  face  with  want,  has  no  conception. 
In  the  final  analysis,  therefore,  iniquitous  social  con- 
ditions, which  deny  opportunity  to  a  large  percentage 
of  the  population,  are  at  the  root  of  the  evil.  No 
deterrent  policies  can  save,  in  the  long  run,  such  a 
situation. 

Let  us  switch  the  glass  north.  From  the  Chicago 
Daily  News  we  have  clipped  the  following :  "  Not 
only  are  robberies  increasing  in  number  in  Chicago, 
but  the  highwaymen  are  more  bold  and  more  desper- 


210  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


ate  than  formerly,  when  they  rarely  resorted  to  vio- 
lence. Today  the  robber's  weapon  is  used  to  injure, 
maim  and  kill."  And  the  latest  figures  in  our  pos- 
session show  that  in  1901  the  burglars  who  committed 
murder  numbered  193,  whereas  in  the  following  year 
the  total  had  grown  to  338.  Well  may  Judge  Mc- 
Kenzie  Cleland  of  the  municipal  court  of  Chicago 
remark  that  "  human  life  is  the  cheapest  thing  in  Chi- 
cago." Seeing  which,  as  president  of  the  criminal 
department  in  the  toughest  district  in  Chicago,  he 
inaugurated  a  system  of  probation  in  lieu  of  punish- 
ment, with  results  that  have  secured  the  attention  of 
the  world  and  have  led  to  the  formation  of  the 
National  Probation  League. 

Comparison  of  the  records  of  New  York  and  Chi- 
cago in  the  matter  of  crimes  of  violence  was  the  sub- 
ject of  an  exhaustive  study  in  the  Reviezv  of  Reviews 
so  recently  as  September,  1908,  and  it  was  shown  that 
in  the  latter  city  crimes  of  violence  are  increasing  out 
of  all  proportion  to  the  growth  of  population,  and 
that  "  this  increase  consists  almost  entirely  of  arrests 
for  assaults  with  a  deadly  weapon  and  for  assaults 
with  intent  to  kill.  There  has  been  little  or  no  in- 
crease in  the  proportion  of  arrests  for  burglary  and 
robbery."  But  the  lamentable  feature  is  that  it  is 
demonstrated  that  this  increase  in  Chicago  has  been 
no  more  rapid  than  that  which  has  taken  place  in 
Philadelphia,  Cincinnatti  and  many  other  cities. 

The  homicide  statistics  for  the  larger  cities  show 
that  Lexington,  Ky.,  heads  the  list.  Then  come,  in 
the  order  named,  Kansas  City,  Kan. ;  Louisville,  Ky. ; 
Cincinnatti,  St.  Louis,  Mo.  The  next  to  these  is  San 
Francisco,  with  an  average  of  9.25  per  100,000  popu- 


WHAT  GOOD  DOES  IT  DO?  211 

lation,  and  Los  Angeles  with  9.  It  is  quite  a  drop  to 
the  much  talked-of  Chicago,  which  shows  a  percent- 
age of  7.30. 

Note  the  location  of  the  cities  that  lead  in  crimes  of 
violence.  They  belong  to  the  convict  camp  south. 
The  brrtal  administration  of  the  criminal  law  in  Cali- 
fornia for  sixty  years  past  has  resulted  finally  in  the 
formation  of  the  Prison  Reform  League,  which  is 
issuing  this  book.  Note,  therefore,  the  unenviable 
position  that  California's  two  largest  cities  —  San 
Francisco  and  Los  Angeles  —  occupy  as  centers  of 
crimes  of  violence.  They  are  far  worse  than  Chi- 
cago; yet  the  latter  murders  six  times  as  many  an- 
nually as  does  London,  which  is  easily  the  world's 
metropolis, 

A  sporadic  outburst  of  violence  in  London  some 
years  ago  led  to  a  movement  in  certain  quarters  for 
arming  the  police  with  revolvers.  The  entire  British 
nation  rose  in  revolt,  declaring,  with  British  common 
sense,  that  if  the  criminal  knew  he  was  in  danger  of 
being  shot  he  would  see  to  it  that  he  himself  was  the 
first  to  shoot.  This  is  exactly  what  happened  about 
a  year  ago  in  Los  Angeles,  when  Capt,  Auble  was 
killed.  The  revolver  was  knocked  out  of  his  hand 
and  he  himself  was  shot. 

Apart  from  newspaper  and  magazine  articles  and 
the  facts  the  Prison  Reform  League  is  laying  before 
the  public  we  have  such  volumes  as  "  9009 "  and 
'*  The  Turn  of  the  Balance  ",  written  by  thoroughly 
responsible  men  who  have  reputations  at  stake.  The 
author  of  the  latter  is  the  mayor  of  Toledo,  Ohio,  and 
a  national,  if  not  an  international,  figure.  Let  anyone 
read  such  works  and  then  ask  himself  whether,  taking 


212  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

the  descriptions  as  true,  he  would  not  be  likely  to  re- 
sist arrest  and  escape  condemnition  to  such  hells  on 
earth  as  are  many  of  our  prisons,  even  at  the  cost  of 
takins:  the  arresting  officer's  life.  Here  you  have  the 
straight  explanation  of  the  observation  that  "  today 
the  robber's  weapon  is  used  to  injure,  maim  and  kill ". 

That  they  manage  these  things  better  in  London 
appears  certain  from  the  following  passage  in  the 
article  by  Williim  McAdoo  previously  referred  to. 
He  says :  "  In  New  York  at  the  present  time  ( Sep- 
tember, 1909)  there  is  great  agitation  over  the  num- 
ber of  burglaries,  and  it  will  be  exceedingly  interest- 
ing to  citizens  to  learn  that  in  1907,  in  London,  in 
spite  of  the  larger  population  as  against  New  York, 
there  were  547  burglaries  and  1962  house-breakings. 
Violence  to  persons  was  used  in  only  three  cases  of 
burglary  and  one  case  of  house-breaking.  I  am  sure 
it  will  astonish  New  Yorkers  to  know  that  there  were 
only  twelve  cases  of  murder  of  persons  of  above  one 
year  of  age  in  the  metropolitan  district  of  London  for 
•the  year  1907." 

The  police  are  well  aware  that  their  lives  are  be- 
coming more  and  more  endangered,  and  they  have 
agitated  for  legislative  measures  that  shall  make  it 
more  difficult  for  the  ordinary  citizen  to  obtain  fire- 
arms. But  apart  from  other  serious  and  fundamental 
objections  it  is  obvious  that  the  proposed  remedy  is 
childish.  The  man  who  proposes  to  resort  to  violence 
will  always  get  the  means  of  doing  so.  If  you  suc- 
ceed in  putting  the  revolver  beyond  his  reach  he  will 
use  the  knife ;  if  that  is  impossible  a  stone  or  club  will 
serve  his  purpose.  To  destroy  Hfe  is  the  easiest  thing 
in  the  world,  and  murder  would  be  universal  were  it 


WHAT  GOOD  DOES  IT  DO?  213 

not  that  there  is  a  most  powerful  racial  instinct  that 
holds  temptation  in  check.  Those  who  advocate, 
support  or  tolerate  the  reign  of  violence,  which  re- 
ceives its  most  striking  modern  exemplification  in  our 
treatment  of  criminals,  are  doing  their  part  in  killing 
that  invaluable  racial  instinct. 

Closely  associated  with  crimes  of  violence  perpe- 
trated against  others  is  the  alarming  growth  of  sui- 
cide, for  both  have  their  root  in  contempt  for  human 
life  and  happiness.  We  quote  from  Prof.  Bushnell, 
previously  referred  to  as  high  authority :  "  With  our 
growing  industrial  disorder  is  associated  a  startling 
recent  increase  in  crime  and  vice.  Suicides  have  in- 
creased in  the  nineteen  years,  from  1889  to  1908,  more 
than  five  times  as  fast  as  has  the  population.  Mur- 
ders and  homicides,  in  the  twenty  years,  between  1885 
and  1904,  have  increased  more  than  three  times  as 
fast  as  has  the  population.  Their  growth  has  been 
almost  steady,  showing  it  is  not  the  result  of  acci- 
dental causes,  but  of  some  sinister  evil  in  the  nation, 
which  is  steadily  working  increasing  wrong." 

Suicide,  insanity  and  alcoholism,  all  three  abnormal 
pathological  features  of  modern  society,  and  as  such 
intimately  connected  with  crime,  are  dealt  with  ex- 
haustively in  the  government  report  of  December  3, 
1902,  referred  to  in  onr  opening  chapter.  We  devote 
a  few  paragraphs  to  the  consideration  of  each,  taking 
our  facts  and  figures  from  that  report. 

In  the  matter  of  suicide  California  makes  the  worst 
showing,  San  Francisco  heading  the  list  with  a  rate 
of  297  to  the  million,  the  state  as  a  whole  coming 
second  with  190.     The  figures  for  Los  Angeles  are 


214  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

not  given.  Then  follow  St.  Louis,  177;  Chicago, 
169;  New  York  City,  149,  and  Boston,  120. 

The  Chicago  Tribune  figures  show  that  in  1881 
there  were  only  605  suicides  in  the  United  States. 
In  1903  there  were  8597,  or  more  than  fourteen  to 
one,  as  compared  with  twenty-three  years  ago.  The 
tables  show  a  steady  increase  from  year  to  year. 

The  growth  of  insanity  is  prodigious,  the  figures, 
taken  from  the  United  States  census,  showing  that 
within  the  thirty  years  from  i860  to  1890  the  insane 
have  increased  in  numbers  from  765  to  the  million  to 
1697,  and  the  feeble-minded  from  602  to  1526  —  a 
most  alarming  exhibit. 

In  deaths  by  alcoholism  New  York  City  leads,  with 
a  rate  of  211  to  the  million.  Then  come  Boston,  180; 
San  Francisco,  177,  and  the  state  of  California  as  a 
whole,  143.  No  other  states  or  cities  get  into  double 
figures. 

The  report  in  question  furnishes  the  foregoing  sta- 
tistics in  connection  with  a  review  of  the  evil  effects 
of  the  condensation  of  the  population  in  large  cities, 
and  the  allegation  is  made  that  education,  formerly 
looked  to  as  the  universal  panacea,  has  proved  a 
broken  reed.  "  If  we  take  in  our  own  country,"  says 
the  report,  "  the  group  of  states  that  show  the  great- 
est education  and  intelligence,  as  the  North  Atlantic, 
North  Central  and  Western,  we  find  that  they  also 
exceed  in  patho-social  evils,  as  insanity,  suicide,  ner- 
vous diseases,  juvenile  criminals  and  almshouse  pau- 
pers." On  the  other  hand,  much  stress  is  laid  on  the 
rush  of  modern  civilization,  the  criticism  being  that 
"  when  the  nerves  are  unstrung  by  over-pressure  the 
will  may  become  weak,  depression  and  pessimism  set 


WHAT  GOOD  DOES  IT  DO? 215 

in  and  loss  of  self-control  follow,  with  its  subsequent 
abnormal  actions,  leading  on  to  crime  and  other  social 
evils."  The  entire  treatment  of  the  subject  in  this  re- 
port is  saturated  with  the  thought  peculiar  to  the 
modern  school  of  criminology,  and  it  is  evident  that 
such  conditions  as  those  presented  are  not  to  be  met 
satisfactorily  by  the  drastic  measures  in  use  among 
prison  sfu^rds.  The  strain  incidental  to  modern  com- 
mercial life  is  also  emphasized  as  one  of  the  leading 
causes  of  crime  and  its  kindred  abnormalities. 

But  we  can  go,  and  with  perfect  safety,  much  far- 
ther than  this,  and  show  that  it  is  precisely  in  those 
sections  of  the  country  in  which  the  most  implicit  re- 
liance is  placed  on  brutality  and  deterrence,  pure  and 
simple,  that  crimes  of  violence  flourish  with  the  rank- 
est growth.  Taking  the  murder  figures  given  in  the 
earlier  portion  of  this  chapter  for  the  South,  the  great 
central  division  of  the  country  and  the  densely  popu- 
lated manufacturing  districts  of  New  England,  it  will 
be  seen  that  where  serious  efforts  have  been  made  to 
mitigate  the  severities  of  the  criminal  law  there  vio- 
lence is  at  the  lowest  ebb,  and  that  where  the  philos- 
ophy of  deterrence  reigns  undisouted,  as  in  the  South, 
homicide  is  most  frequent.  Thus  is  given  a  self- 
convincing  demonstration  of  the  philosophic  truth 
that  here,  as  everywhere,  the  law  of  inheritance  is 
omnipotent,  like  begetting  like  and  violence  a  progeny 
of  violence  —  the  vital  truth  on  which  the  whole 
structure  of  modern  criminology  rests. 

Ever3^where  the  unanswerable  argument  of  facts 
-will  be  found,  on  close  investigation,  to  support  the 
principle  laid  down  in  the  last  paragraph,  but  perhaps 
the  amplest  confirmatipn  is  afforded  by  the  history  of 


2i6  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

capital  punishment  and  lynchings.  It  has  been  the 
invariable  cry  of  those  who  favored  the  retention  of 
the  death  penalty  that,  if  it  were  abolished,  the  people 
themselves  would  impose  it.  "  If  this  opinion  be  cor- 
rect, as  numerous  writers  aver,"  says  C.  B.  Galbreath, 
state  librarian  of  Ohio,  in  his  treatise  entitled  "  Shall 
the  State  Kill  ?  "  we  shall,  of  course,  find  the  majority 
of  lynchins^s  in  the  states  that  have  abolished  the 
death  penalty.  What  are  the  facts?  In  the  last  fif- 
teen years  (the  treatise  was  published  in  1906)  two 
of  these  states  have  not  had  a  single  lynching.  Of 
the  others,  one  has  had  two  lynchings  and  the  other 
four,  while  Georgia,  the  state  that  leads  all  others, 
with  172  executions,  also  stands  second,  with  237 
lynchings.  Texas  follows  with  140  executions  and 
183  lynchings.  Alabama  almost  duplicates  the  rec- 
ord, with  1 19  executions  and  206  lynchings ;  while 
Mississippi,  which  falls  a  little  behind,  with  97  execu- 
tions, leads  all  the  states  with  249  lynchings.  Of 
1900  executions  and  2240  lynchings  in  the  United 
States  in  the  last  fifteen  years,  twelve  states,  with  less 
than  one-third  of  the  total  population,  performed  1090 
executions  and  1747  of  the  lynchings.  Almost  with- 
out exception  executions  and  lynchings  go  hand  in 
hand.  This  fact,  that  '  he  who  runs  may  read ', 
should  dispose  forever  of  the  excuse  that  the  state 
must  execute  to  prevent  the  people  from  taking  the 
law  into  their  own  hands."  And  the  same  writer, 
toward  the  close  of  his  treatise,  makes  the  following 
Comment : 

"  It  is  becoming  somewhat  the  vogue  to  out-Winkle 
Rip  Van  Winkle  ten  times  over,  and  after  a  rub  of 
the  eyes  to  declare  that  this  shall  be  New  England,  in 


THE  WATER   CURE. 


The   prisoner  endures   all   the   agonies   of   strangulation,   and   fre- 
quently succumbs.     See  page  45. 


2i8  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

the  days  of  the  pillory,  the  stocks  and  the  lash. 
Quite  recently,  when  some  of  ns  were  on  our  way  to 
the  conference,  John  Temple  Graves,  in  his  charac- 
teristicplly  fervid  eloquence,  called  for  the  revival 
of  the  brandingf  iron  as  an  instrument  of  punishment. 
Only  a  short  time  a£^o,  not  far  from  this  place  (Moun- 
tain Lake  Park,  Maryland),  Secretary  Bonaparte  pro- 
posed to  cure  anarchy  by  a  more  general  application 
of  the  death  penalty  and  the  rehabilitation  of  the 
whipping  post.  Murder  at  the  hands  of  the  anarchist 
is  a  most  deplorable  crime,  and  in  this  country  with- 
out the  shadow  of  excuse.  In  every  civilized  nation 
the  penalty  is  death,  swift  and  sure.  But  the  fact 
remains  that  the  penalty  does  not  prevent  the  recur- 
rence of  the  crime." 

Testimony  of  a  similar  character  is  borne  by  George 
P.  Upton,  in  an  article  entitled  "  Facts  About  Lynch- 
ing ",  published  in  the  Independent,  Sept.  29,  1904. 
Mr.  LTpton,  as  associate  editor  of  the  Chicago  Trib- 
une, for  years  gathered  and  recorded  the  elaborate 
statistics  that  paper  publishes  the  first  of  each  year. 
He  shows  that  in  the  period  of  nineteen  years  from 
1885  to  1903  there  were  2875  lynchings,  distributed 
thus:  South,  2499;  West,  312;  Pacific  slope,  63; 
East,  II.  Six  times  as  many  lynchings  in  the  South 
as  in  all  the  rest  of  the  country ! 

Mr.  Upton  further  takes  occasion  to  punctuate  the 
general  fallacy  that  the  majority  of  these  southern 
lynchings  are  for  criminal  assaults  on  women,  show- 
ing that,  within  the  given  period,  only  564  were 
lynched  for  that  crime  as  against  1099  for  murder. 
And  he  makes  the  following  highly  suggestive  re- 
mark :     "  The  claim,  therefore,  that  lynching  is  the 


WHAT  GOOD  DOES  IT  DO? 219 

summary  punishment  for  a  single  crime  is  not  only 
misleadingf,  but  dishonest.  If  any  crime  can  be  called 
'  usual '  it  is  murder.  Startling  as  it  may  seem,  sta- 
tistics will  show  that  murder  is  the  national  crime." 

In  subsequent  chapters  we  shall  consider  at  some 
length  probation,  the  indeterminate  sentence  and  other 
reform  measures  that  have  been  and  are  being  adopted 
by  various  states,  and  in  the  following  grouping  al- 
lusion is  made  to  them  for  the  first  time  for  the  sake 
of  comparative  classification.  The  object  of  such 
grouping  and  classification  is  to  show  that  crime,  and 
especially  crimes  of  violence,  thrives  on  brutal  treat- 
ment and  diminishes  in  virulence  when  dealt  with  in 
a  more  intelligent  and  civilized  manner. 

The  type  of  the  old  regime  is  represented  in  its 
purest  form  by  those  states  that  have  no  reforma- 
tories, impose  only  definite  sentences,  leave  the  grant- 
ing of  paroles,  if  granted  at  all,  to  the  governor  and 
.do  nothing  for  the  discharged  convict.  Examining 
the  records  and  drawing  largely  on  the  report  of  the 
National  Prison  Association  committee  on  discharged 
prisoners,  prepared  by  Amos  W.  Butler  and  published 
in  1903,  we  find  the  following  southern  states  in 
this  class:  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Georgia,  Louisiana, 
Maryland,  New  Mexico,  Mississippi,  Tennessee, 
North  and  South  Carolina  and  Texas. 

Maryland  is  perhaps  entitled  to  be  taken  out  of  this 
class  by  the  fact  that  paroles  are  frequently  granted 
by  judges  on  suspension  of  sentence  at  the  time  of 
trial,  but  Maryland  has  been  under  the  civilizing  in- 
fluence of  the  Maryland  Prisoners'  Aid  Association, 
and  the  Maryland  prison  conference  of  January,  1907, 
although  it  took  no  definite  action,  discussed  and  re* 


CRIME  AND~  CRIMINALS 


viewed  favorably  the  indeterminate  sentence.  In 
other  words,  thanks  to  individual  efforts,  thought  has 
begun  to  stir  in  Maryland,  and  with  some  result. 

Missouri  also  woidd  belong  to  this  class  but  for  the 
fact  that  she  adopted  in  1907,  with  certain  limitations, 
the  parole  system.  She  has  no  reformatory  and  her 
penitentiary  has  been  the  subject  of  constant  and  most 
drastic  criticism.  Fortunately  she  has  among  her 
citizens  men  of  the  Arthur  N.  Sager  type,  and  what 
they  think  of  their  state's  penal  institutions  may  be 
judged  from  the  fact  that  Judge  Sager  told  the  Na- 
tional Prison  Association  congress  of  1907  that  "  it 
might  fitly  be  written  above  the  portals  of  the  grim 
pile  of  steel  and  masonry  at  Jefferson  City,  '  All  hope 
abandon,  ye  who  enter  here '."  Gov.  Hadley  has 
spoken  of  it  as  more  characteristic  of  the  middle  ages 
than  of  the  twentieth  century,  thereby  indorsing  the 
repeated  condemnations  passed  by  former  Warden 
Hall. 

Most  of  the  names  given  above  figured  largely  in 
orr  chapter  on  southern  convict  camps.  Florida, 
which  was  repeatedly  alluded  to.  is  still  in  the  ele- 
mentary class,  having  no  arrangements  for  probation, 
and  in  Delaware,  another  southern  state,  the  whipping 
po=t  has  proved  so  brutal  that  the  former  warden  of 
Wilmington  penitentiary  resigned  rather  than  con- 
tinue inflicting  the  torture. 

It  is  no  mere  coincidence  that  the  very  section  of 
the  country  which  has  revived  in  its  convict  camps 
peonage  of  a  most  barbarous  type  is  also  that  which 
has  taken  no  pains  to  modify  its  antiquated,  distinc- 
tively punitive  methods  of  dealing  with  crime,  and 
that   in    which    murder    flourishes    with    the    rankest 


WHAT  GOOD  DOES  IT  DO?  22t 

growth.  Occasional  voices  break  the  silence  with  in- 
dignant protests,  but  as  a  whole  the  South  contributes 
little  to  the  vast  literature  that  has  formed  elsewhere 
and  is  pleading  eloquently  for  a  more  scientific,  ra- 
tional and  humane  treatment  of  crime  and  criminals. 
On  this  great  question  it  is  still  asleep. 

Unfortunately  other  states  are  found  in  this  prim- 
itive class,  and  it  is  to  be  noted  that  they  are  the  very 
ones  in  which  it  is  proverbial  that  life  is  cheap.  They 
represent  territory  lately  settled,  where  everything 
has  been  in  the  rough  and  men  have  been  mainly  in- 
tent on  speculation  and  the  rapid  acquisition  of  for- 
tunes. Arizona,  for  instance,  seems  to  have  adopted 
as  yet  rone  of  the  modern  changes,  but  it  is  to  be  said 
that  in  the  west  there  is,  at  least,  much  discussion  of 
the  subject  and  that  the  American  Prison  Association 
selected  Seattle  for  its  1909  congress. 

Next  to  the  primitive  class  described  above  comes 
one  in  which  some  attention  is  given  to  the  subject  of 
parole,  since  its  grant  is  made  the  business  of  a  spe- 
cial board,  acting  usuillv  with  the  approval  of  the 
governor  of  the  state.  Nevada,  Idaho,  North  Dakota 
and  Utah  are  in  this  class,  as  are  also  the  southern 
states  of  Kentucky,  Virginia  and  West  Virginia. 
California  has  emerged  from  it  only  recently,  having 
adopted  the  probation  principle  in  1903  and  made  pro- 
vision at  the  la'^t  session  of  her  legishture  for  the  em- 
ployment of  discharged  convicts.  The  parole  privi- 
lege also  was  extended  to  recidivists. 

One  of  the  incongruities  that  have  marked  the 
progress  of  prison  reform  is  the  fact  that  Rhode 
Island,  though  belonging  geographically  to  the  ad- 
vanced New  England  group,  still  lingers  in  this  back- 


222  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

ward  class.  It  was,  however,  one  of  the  first  states 
to  abolish  capital  punishment.  Maine  also  occupies 
a  peculiar  position.  Although  it  did  away  with  the 
death  penalty  years  ago  it  still  clings  to  the  peniten- 
tiary and  the  definite  sentence,  and  has  adopted  the 
probation  system  in  only  one  county.  The  political 
conditions  of  both  states  are  peculiar. 

In  reality  the  adoption  of  the  indeterminate  sen- 
tence, under  which  the  convict  is  released  when  it  is 
deemed  safe  to  release  him,  is  the  crucial  test  of  the 
advance  made  by  a  state  along  the  lines  of  modern 
thought,  for  the  advocacy  of  the  indeterminate  sen- 
tence proceeds  invariably  along  the  lines  that  the 
business  of  the  state  is  not  to  revenge,  but  to  protect 
itself,  while  endeavoring  to  bring  about  such  reform 
of  the  individual  as  shall  cause  him  to  leave  his  place 
of  detention  a  better  man  than  when  he  entered  it. 
A  system  of  probation  cannot  be  operated  success- 
fully, it  is  true,  without  the  application  of  the  indeter- 
minate sentence,  but  the  basic  fact  is  that  the  state 
which  declares  for  the  indeterminate  sentence  thereby 
announces  to  the  world  that  it  has  abandoned  the 
time-honored  philosophy  of  revenge  as  futile  and  out 
of  date.  To  be  logical  it  should  immediately  follow 
the  lead  of  the  five  states  that  have  abolished  capital 
punishment. 

What  we  desire  to  emphasize,  as  a  matter  of  the 
first  importance,  is  the  fact  that  the  states  that  for 
years  past  have  occupied  the  most  advanced  position, 
and  are  endeavoring  to  divorce  themselves  from  re- 
venge and  devote  themselves  to  protection  and  re- 
form, are  those  that  figure  in  the  official  returns  as 
freest   from   murder  and   crimes   of  violence.     They 


WHAT  GOOD  DOES  IT  DO?  223 

are  the  states  of  the  central  division  and  New  Eng- 
land, to  which  must  be  added,  despite  the  notoriously 
corrupt  government  of  the  metropolis,  the  name  of 
New  York.  These  are  also  the  states  that  are  putting 
out  more  and  more  a  literature  that  teems  with  facts 
and  arguments  in  favor  of  the  modern  and  scientific 
school. 

New  York  and  Chicago  are  the  two  largest  cities 
in  the  country,  with  a  most  cosmopolitan  'population, 
a  large  percentage  of  which  is  always  on  the  ragged 
edge  of  destitution.  Nine  persons  out  of  ten  would 
guess  that  they  lead  in  the  statistics  of  homicide,  but 
we  have  shown  that  the  first  five  in  the  list  are  all 
southern  cities,  and  that  then  come  San  Francisco  and 
Los  Angeles,  the  two  leading  cities  of  California,  a 
state  notorious  for  the  severity  with  which  it  has  pun- 
ished crime  in  such  penitentiaries  as  San  Quentin  and 
Folsom. 

Both  the  states  of  New  York  and  Illinois  doubtless 
saved  themselves  from  being  at  the  head  of  the  col- 
umn by  the  prison  reforms  they  introduced.  New 
York  was  the  first  state  in  the  union  to  enact  the  in- 
determinate sentence,  and  the  probation  system  there 
has  been  in  the  most  extensive  vogue.  It  has  estab- 
lished reformatories  and  has  endeavored  constantly  to 
keep  abreast  with  modern  thought,  as  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  it  has  now  under  consideration,  largely  at 
the  instance  of  the  Women's  Prison  Association,  the 
segregation  of  habitual  ofiFenders  and  the  treatment, 
under  indeterminate  sentences,  of  chronic  drunkards, 
for  whose  permanent  cure  short  sentences  and  ordi- 
nary prison  conditions  are  entirely  ineffectual. 


224  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

Similarly  in  Chicago,  and  especially  since  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  late  Gov.  Altgeld,  who  was  an 
untiring  worker  along  these  lines,  there  has  been 
a  constant  striving  for  improved  methods.  All  Illi- 
nois' penal  institutions  work  under  the  indeterminate 
sentence,  and  remarkable  results  have  been  achieved 
in  the  municipality  court  of  Chicago  by  McKenzie 
Cleland.  Illinois,  which  has  taken  the  lead  in  the  for- 
mation of  a  national  probation  league,  is  apparently 
on  the  verge  of  following  her  philosophy  to  its  logical 
conclusion  and  abolishing  capital  punishment. 

Michigan,  Wisconsin  and  Kansas  have  all  proved 
true  to  the  instinct  that  prompted  them  to  abolish  cap- 
ital punishment  and  have  established  variors  reform 
institutions,  but  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  first 
named  has  not  yet  adppted  the  indeterminate  sentence 
as  the  others  have  done,  with  respect  at  least  to  their 
reformatories. 

Indiana,  which  has  had  the  indeterminate  sentence 
plan  some  twelve  years,  boasts  a  fine  prison-reform 
record,  and  was  able  to  show  recently,  as  the  result 
of  eleven  years,  that  3983  prisoners  had  been  paroled 
and  that  only  25  per  cent,  had  violated  their  pledges. 
The  paroled  men  had  earned  an  average  of  $271  dur- 
ing the  time  they  were  being  tested  on  parole,  but  the 
official  report  from  which  these  figures  are  taken  re- 
marks that  "  all  of  them  had  received  much  training, 
and  they  were  released  under  conditions  that  imposed 
honest,  law-abiding  lives  for  a  period  of  at  least  one 
year."  Apparently  there  has  been  genuine  effort  to 
improve  the  condition  of  the  convict.  Indiana  also 
has  been  the  first  to  come  to  the  front  with  plans  for 
the  protection  of  female  delinquents,  previously  con- 


WHAT  GOOD  DOES  TT  DO?  223 

fined  in  the  much  criticised  county  jails,  a  special 
training  institution  for  them  having  been  opened  Feb- 
ruary, 1908,  and  being  managed  entirely  by  women. 
The  state  can  point  to  a  large  and  active  body  of  noted 
prison  reformers,  including  the  late  governor,  who 
entered. office  opposed  to  the  indeterminate  sentence^ 
but  later  became  its  strongest  advocate. 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  the  work  done  in  Ohio 
by  such  men  as  Brand  Whitlock,  mayor  of  Toledo 
and  author  of  "  The  Turn  of  the  Balance",  Frederick 
Kohler,  chief  of  police  in  Cleveland,  and  others, 
among  whom  the  late  "  Golden  Rule  "  Jones  should 
not  be  forgotten.  In  Ohio  there  is  a  strong  move- 
ment against  capital  punishment,  and  she  appears 
to  have  set  her  face  steadily  toward  prison  reform. 
She  belongs  to  the  tier  of  central  states. 

In  New  England,  Massachusetts  long  ago  set  a 
strong  lead,  and  the  work  of  the  Massachusetts  Prison 
Association,  with  a  large  list  of  active  and  capable 
members,  is  well  known.  Connecticut  also  belongs 
to  the  most  advanced  group,  except  for  the  fact  that, 
like  Massachusetts,  she  has  retained  the  death  pen- 
alty. She  has  had  the  indeterminate  sentence  since 
190T ;  paroles  are  granted  by  a  board ;  in  her  peniten- 
tiary at  Wethersfield  only  one  prisoner  is  allowed  in 
a  cell,  and  the  state  makes  some  effort  to  find  work 
for  discharged  convicts,  although  it  is  understood 
that  most  of  this  is  done  by  the  Connecticut  Prison 
Association.  Hitherto,  it  is  true,  she  has  had  no  re- 
formatory, but  the  last  session  of  the  legislature 
passed  an  act  providing  one  for  first  offenders  be- 
tween the  ages  of  16  and  25  years,  and  appropriating 
$400,000  for  the  erection  of  the  necessary  building. 


226  CRIME  AND  CRT^TTNALS 

So  one  might  go  through  the  list  of  states  in  the 
central  and  New  England  sections  of  the  country, 
showing  that  invariably  those  which  have  exhibited 
the  most  marked  tendency  to  separate  themselves 
from  the  old  philosophy  of  revenge  and  deterrence 
are  precisely  those  which  have  made  the  greatest  ad- 
vance in  the  strugfrle  with  the  problem  of  crime,  and 
especially  crimes  of  violence. 

Does  not  our  common  sense  tell  us  that  it  could  not 
be  otherwise?  Does  not  it  tell  us  that  to  degrade  a 
man  habitually,  to  torture  and  tyrannize  over  him  by 
a  thousand  and  one  autocratic  rules,  to  thrust  him  out 
at  the  end  of  his  term  economically  helpless  and  with 
an  inexpressible  bitterness  in  his  soul ;  then  to  hornd 
him  incessantly,  standing  ever  ready  to  arrest  him, 
gun  in  hand  —  does  not  the  most  ordinary  common 
sense  tell  us  that  this  is  to  turn  him  into  a  ferocious 
beast  of  prey,  who,  knowing  only  too  well  the  hell 
that  awaits  him  should  he  be  sent  back  to  jail,  will 
commit  murder  remorselessly  in  order  to  destroy  the 
evidence  or  avoid  arrest? 

Humanity  is  being  compelled  to  find  some  better 
way,  and  happily  the  road  has  been  opened  by  the  re- 
searches of  the  scientific  school,  whose  work  will  now 
command  our  attention. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


PROBATION.  PAROLE  AND  THE  INDETERMINATE 
SENTENCE 


Mankind  learns  only  by  experience,  moving  when 
it  is  forced  to  move.  The  first  to  break  the  way  are 
necessarily  the  most  sensitive,  who  feel  most  keenly 
the  suffering  caused  by  social  mal-adjustments.  In 
the  earlier  stage  men  of  the  John  Howard  type,  whose 
sympathies  will  not  permit  them  to  keep  silence ;  in 
the  later  stage  those  whose  intellects  revolt  against 
conditions  fatal  to  life  and  incompatible  with  civiliza- 
tion. Seekers  after  truth ;  devotees  of  the  logic  of 
facts ;  the  scientific  school. 

Nothing  comes  into  existence  until  the  time  for  it 
is  ripe.  Scientific  criminology  could  be  born  only 
after  a  preliminary  science,  that  of  statistics,  had  been 
developed.  For,  while  it  is  obvious  that  human  con- 
duct must  be  influenced  immensely  by  physical  and 
social  environment  —  climate,  laws,  religious  beliefs, 
economic  conditions,  and  so  forth  —  it  is  also  obvious 
that  we  cannot  judge  the  comparative  importance  of 
these  various  influences  until  facts  have  been  ascer- 
tained and  statistically  collated.  This  holds  good  in 
all  branches  of  inquiry,  and  in  criminology  it  is  gen- 
erally admitted  that  the  work  began  with  the  observa- 
tions and  statistical  compilations  of  English  surgeons, 
who  were  men  of  science  rather  than  politicians.  To 
the  statistical  information  bearing  on  the  climatic  and 
social  causes  of  crime  science  added  the  results  of  its 
researches  in  biology  and  psychology,  thus  laying,  as 


228  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

.  it  claims,  at  least  the  basis  of  a  positive  science  of 
criminology. 

The  individual  commits  a  crime.  Why?  This  is 
the  question  that  the  deterrent  school  never  has  trou- 
bled itself  to  ask.  The  arresting  officer,  the  judge  who 
passes  sentence  and  the  wardens  and  jailers  who  carry 
out  its  execution  recognize  only  the  one  fact  that  a 
crime  has  been  committed  and  must  be  punished.  It 
is  true  that  an  individual  judge  may  take  into  con- 
sideration the  prisoner's  antecedents  and  temptations, 
and  that  judges  are  doing  this  today  with  increasing 
frequency.  But  in  so  doing  they  themselves  pay  trib- 
ute to  the  power  of  modern  scientific  thought,  since 
they  thereby  turn  their  backs  on  the  deterrent  philos- 
ophy and  move  into  the  camp  of  the  scientists,  who 
insist  that  this  question  *  Why '  is  the  one  of  all  others 
that  must  be  asked  and  fully  answered.  For  the 
problem  of  crime,  like  every  other,  can  be  solved,  but 
only  when  we  know  its  causes.  Furthermore,  it  is 
only  when  that  knowledge  has  been  gained  that  it 
will  be  possible  for  us  to  mete  out  anything  deserv- 
ing the  name  of  justice. 

"  It  is  impossible  ",  says  Enrico  Ferri  in  his  "  Crim- 
inal Sociology  ",  "  to  give  a  scientific  explanation  of 
a  crime  (or  indeed  of  any  other  action  of  man  or 
brute)  unless  it  is  considered  as  the  product  of  a  par- 
ticular organic  and  physical  constitution,  acting  in  a 
particular  physical  and  social  environment."  We  are 
all  the  products  of  environment,  past  and  present ;  of 
the  individual  organism,  effective  or  defective,  inher- 
ited from  our  ancestors,  and  of  the  action  of  the  pres- 
ent environment  on  that  organism.  In  this  environ- 
ment—  past  and  present  —  are  to  be  found  the  roots 
of  crime,  as  of  all  other  human  activities;  and  scien- 


PROBATION,  PAROLE,  ETC.  229 

tific  criminology  is  the  study  of  the  comparative 
influence  of  yesterday  and  today.  Many  crimes,  and 
especially  those  of  a  sexual  character,  are  due  directly 
to  physical  malformations,  inherited  from  diseased 
parents.  The  unfortunates  who  commit  such  crimes 
are  "  defectives  ",  against  whom  society  may  justly 
protect  itself,  but  whom  it  cannot  justly  punish.  Other 
crimes,  and  those  by  far  the  most  numerous,  are  the 
direct  outcome  of  a  present  social  environment  that 
lends  itself  to  the  creation  of  that  particular  class  of 
offense.  Petty  larceny  abounds  when  times  are  hard. 
Remove  the  causes  that  begot  the  hard  times  and  there 
will  be  an  immediate  falling  off  in  the  volume  of  that 
particular  crime. 

The  scientific  school,  therefore,  traces  the  origin  of 
crime  both  to  the  individual  organism  and  to  the  phys- 
ical and  social  environment  acting  on  that  organism. 
It  does  not  cast  the  entire  blame  for  crime  on  present 
social  arrangements.  Poverty,  for  example,  has  much 
to  do  with  crime,  but  not  everything.  Just  as  Charles 
Darwin  was  careful  to  point  out  that  in  the  struggle 
for  existence  the  inherited  organic  structure  was  the 
most  potent  of  all  factors,  so  criminological  science 
notes  the  fact  that  there  is  such  a  being  as  "  the  crim- 
inal man",  the  abjiormal  defective  whose  instincts  are 
anti-social.  Every  scientific  work  on  criminology 
emphasizes  this  and  buttresses  the  assertion  with 
elaborate  proof. 

It  is,  we  think,  a  fair  statement  of  the  case  to  say 
that  the  modern  school  of  scientific  criminology  dis- 
criminates between  (i)  the  born  criminal,  whose  ten- 
dencies are  naturally  anti-social  and  with  whom  relapse 
is  the  rule  rather  than  the  exception;  (2)  the  crim- 
inal by  contracted  habit,  embracing  that  large  class 


230  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

with  which  the  power  of  resisting  temptation  is 
defective  and  which  degenerates  after  having  been  in 
jail;  (3)  the  criminal  of  passion,  who,  although  other- 
wise normal,  is  the  victim  of  neurotic  weakness ;  and 
(4)  the  occasional  criminal,  whose  fall  is  due  rather 
to  external  causes  than  to  internal  tendencies. 

This  was  practically  the  position  of  the  celebrated 
criminologist,  Cesare  Lombroso,  whose  recent  death 
has  led  to  an  increased  discussion  of  the  teachings  with 
which  his  name  was  prominently  associated.  In  our 
judgment  his  position  was  much  misunderstood,  the 
superficial  view  prevailing  in  many  quarters  that  in 
calling  attention  to  the  essentially  criminal  man  he 
pronounced  a  hard  and  inhuman  verdict.  We  believe 
that  nothing  could  be  further  from  the  truth,  his  opin- 
ions, like  those  of  the  entire  school  to  which  he 
belonged,  being  in  reality  distinguished  by  their  kindly 
sympathy.  For  Lombroso's  message  was  that  moral 
defectives  are  a  social  product,  and  that,  as  one  critic, 
Mr.  Charles  Ferguson,  has  expressed  it,  "  no  man  can 
be  bad  without  a  bad  backing."  While,  in  common 
with  all  the  modern  physiologists,  he  attached  great 
importancce  to  the  study  of  skull  formations  as  indica- 
tive of  brain  power,  a  defective  cranium  was  not  in 
his  opinion  a  fault  for  which  its  owner  should  be  pun- 
ished, but  a  misfortune  entitling  him  to  extra  consid- 
eration at  the  hands  of  society;  and  he  held  emphat- 
ically that  society  would  find  its  true  salvation  not  in 
taking  revenge  on  its  enemies  but  in  bringing  about 
conditions  that  would  convert  them  into  friends.  It 
may  be  added  that  in  his  later  years  he  inclined  to 
the  belief  that  he  had  over-rated  the  importance  of 
craniology  and  under-rated  that  of  unfavorable  sur- 
roundings.   In  any  event  the  Darwinian  position  that 


PROBATION,  PAROLE,  ETC.  231 

inherited  structure,  favorable  or  unfavorable,  is  a 
factor  of  tremendous  importance  remains  unassailable, 
and  must  be  accorded  its  full  weight  in  any  system 
of  criminology  that  claims  to  be  scientific. 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  is  not  a  sentimental 
view,  or  one  that  lends  itself  to  gushing  generaliza- 
tions. On  the  contrary,  it  professes  to  be  something 
of  far  greater  value  —  an  approximation,  at  least,  to 
the  truth,  founded  on  facts  carefully  investigated.  But 
it  will  be  observed  also  that,  whether  the  cause  that 
led  to  crime  was  individual  weakness  of  will  or  phys- 
ical malformation,  or  whether  it  was  that  general  eco- 
nomic ignorance  which  plunges  us,  for  example, 
periodically  into  panics  and  brings  thousands  to  star- 
vation, the  act  was  the  inevitable  result  of  environment 
—  past  or  present.  Now  it  is  absurd  to  take  revenge 
on  or  punish  what  was  inevitable,  and  it  is  the  part 
Oi  wisdom  to  guard  against  it  and,  if  possible,  remove 
the  causes  that  insure  its  endless  repetition. 

This,  in  a  nutshell,  is  the  position  of  the  scientific, 
protective  and  preventive  school,  as  opposed  to  the 
deterrent,  punitive  philosophy  which  still,  most  un- 
happily, dominates  the  situation.  With  this  clearly 
comprehended  it  will  be  possible  for  us  to  consider 
intelligently  the  subjects  of  probation,  the  indetermi- 
nate sentence,  the  treatment  of  juvenile  delinquents 
and  other  innovations  that  the  modern  school  has 
succeeded  in  introducing.  For  their  adoption  is  due 
both  to  the  intrinsic  power  of  the  great  argument  we 
have  summarized  so  briefly,  and  to  the  rapidly  crystal- 
lizing sentiment  that  it  is  ridiculous  to  punish  the 
individual  vindictively  for  doing  what,  by  the  nature 
of  things,  he  could  not  help  doing.  It  is  due  to  a 
growing  realization  of  the  profound  truth  of  Renan's 


232  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

favorite  saying,  that  "  to  understand  all  is  to  pardon 
all  " ;  to  a  general  rejection  of  the  doctrine  of  original 
sin  and  a  conviction  that  the  teachings  of  the  evolu- 
tionary school,  which  permeate  all  modern  thought, 
bear  us  irresistibly  to  the  conclusion  that  the  capacities 
for  good  latent  in  every  human  being  are  infinite,  if 
only  we  have  the  wit  to  develop  them. 

Thus  around  the  forlorn  figure  of  the  convict  swirls 
the  battle  for  the  emancipation  of  human  thought. 

Here,  for  example,  is  the  president  of  the  Chaplains' 
Association  speaking  at  the  remarkable  congress  of 
the  American  Prison  Association,  held  in  Chicago  less 
than  two  years  ago  —  a  congress  attended  by  many 
of  the  leading  wardens  of  the  country.  He  asks  this 
pointed  question :  "  What's  in  a  prison  that  it  should 
reform  man?  They  are  received,  photographed, 
stripped,  clipped,  anointed,  measured,  numbered,  tab- 
ulated by  size,  shape,  scars,  color,  marks,  moles  and 
the  unchanging  papillary  ridges  of  the  finger  tips. 
Arrayed  in  prison  garb  they  are  counted,  marched, 
worked,  watched  whether  awake  or  asleep,  hustled 
along  by  keepers,  lied  about  by  fellow-convicts,  for- 
gotten by  their  friends,  kept  in  silence  and  leading 
strings  till  they  lose  the  power  of  initiative  and  forget 
the  usages  of  the  world." 

Or  take  an  address  by  Judge  Arthur  N.  Sager  of 
St.  Louis,  made  at  the  same  congress,  in  which,  speak- 
ing of  the  penitentiary  at  Jefiferson  City,  he  says: 
"  We  know  that  when  the  convict  leaves  these  walls 
his  picture,  description  and  record  will  be  catalogued 
in  all  the  great  cities  of  the  land ;  that  the  trained 
sleuths  of  the  law  are  constantly  on  the  alert  to  pick 
him  up,  interrogate  and  inform  upon  him ;  that  he  is 
as  timid  and  helpless  as  a  bird  just  released  from  the 


PROBATION,  PAROLE,  ETC.  233 

cage;  that  he  feels  that  every  man  who  looks  him  in 
the  face  reads  his  prison  number  and  record.  We 
know,  if  his  family  is  gone,  his  home  destroyed  and 
his  friends  have  forgotten  him,  he  is  as  a  wild  beast 
—  hunted,  feared  and  despised." 

When  such  thoughts  make  their  way  into  any  con- 
siderable number  of  minds  they  are  bound  to  ripen 
into  action.  One  of  these  forms  of  action,,  the  adult 
probation  law,  we  shall  now  consider. 

Massachusetts  was  distinctly  the  pioneer,  having 
taken  action  as  far  back  as  1878.  Then  came  a  long 
pause  that  lasted  until  1900,  when  Vermont  and  New 
Jersey  followed  suit.  After  which  came  New  York 
in  1901,  California  and  Michigan  in  1903,  Maine 
(one  county  only)  in  1905,  Missouri  (only  for  those 
between  nineteen  and  twenty-five  years  of  age)  in 
1906,  Ohio  in  1907,  Indiana  in  1908  and  Connecticut 
in  1909.  The  organ  of  the  National  Probation 
League,  organized  in  Chicago,  December  15,  1908, 
announces  that  similar  laws  probably  will  be  passed 
in  Illinois,  Minnesota,  Wisconsin  and  other  states  this 
winter. 

It  should  be  added  that  thirty  states  and  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia  have  juvenile  probation  laws,  legis- 
latures having  shown  a  far  greater  readiness  to  apply 
this  sensible  and  humane  system  to  the  youthful  than 
to  the  adult  offender  —  a  striking  example  of  the 
muddy  thought  that  apparently  reigns  supreme  when 
the  question  of  crime  and  criminals  is  under 
examination. 

For  those  who  have  made  a  special  study  of  this 
subject  are  a  unit  in  holding  that  if  there  is  one  good 
reason  why  a  lad  should  be  placed  on  probation,  there 
are  a  dozen  for  avoiding,  if  it  is  possible  to  do  so,  the 


234  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


locking  up  of  the  father  on  whom,  probably,  he,  his 
brothers  and  sisters  and  his  mother  are  dependent; 
since  the  cause  of  juvenile,  delinquency  is  most  com- 
monly parental  neglect,  which  imprisonment  of  the 
family  bread-winner  only  intensifies;  and  the  earning 
capacity  of  the  adult  is  larger  than  that  of  the  youth, 
so  that  the  community  is  by  that  much  the  loser  when 
the  state  forces  the  adult  into  compulsory  idleness.  As 
Judge  Cleland  of  the  municipal  court  of  Chicago  puts 
it :  "  If  an  ex-convict  has  a  family,  he  returns  from 
prison  to  find  them  impoverished,  shunned  by  their 
neighbors,  his  children  scorned  and  sneered  at  by  their 
schoolmates  —  everything  worse,  more  helpless,  than 
when  he  left  them."  Thus  the  advocates  of  adult  pro- 
bation are  in  the  habit  of  urging  it  even  more  for  the 
sake  of  the  offender's  family  than  for  that  of  the 
offender  himself. 

In  direct  line  with  this  thought  was  the  action  taken 
by  the  District  of  Columbia,  which  passed  a  law, 
March  23,  1906,  providing  for  the  payment  of  50  cents 
a  day  to  the  families  of  men  under  workhouse  sen- 
tence for  non-support.  The  record  for  the  year  end- 
ing June  30,  1909,  shows  that  during  that  period  the 
superintendent  paid  to  families  of  prisoners  $2340, 
but  the  principle  established  received  a  far  wider  ex- 
tension under  the  management  of  Judge  William  H. 
De  Lacy  of  the  Juvenile  Court.  In  the  various  do- 
mestic difficulties  brought  before  him  he  quickly  made 
it  understood  that  husbands  and  fathers  who  failed 
to  support  their  families  would  be  sent  to  the  work- 
house, and  the  report  for  the  period  just  mentioned 
gives  $38,319.65  as  the  sum  distributed  through  his 
agency  to  various  families. 


PROBATION,  PAROLE.  ETC.  235 

The  federal  government  still  lags  conspicuously  in 
the  rear,  having  no  probation  law  for  either  juveniles 
or  adults,  and  in  the  same  class  stand  the  following 
states:  Arkansas,  Delaware,  Florida,  Georgia  (except 
the  city  of  Atlanta),  Maine  (except  Cumberland 
county),  Mississippi,  Nevada,  North  Carolina,  North 
and  South  Dakota,  Oklahoma,  South  Carolina,  West 
Virginia  and  Wyoming.  In  previous  chapters  we  have 
commented  on  the  brutal  methods  of  treating  crime 
that  still  mark  the  south,  instancing,  in  particular,  the 
atrocities  of  the  convict  camps.  The  preponderance  of 
southern  states  in  the  foregoing  list  will  strike  the 
most  superficial  reader. 

What  is  the  principle  that  underlies  all  probation 
laws?  Simply  that  which  is  the  basis  of  the  entire 
national  movement  set  on  foot  by  the  Prison  Reform 
League  —  that  the  philosophy  of  revenge  has  been 
proved  inefficacious  and  is,  therefore,  out  of  date,  and 
that  society  profits  more  by  reforming  than  by  pun- 
ishing the  offender.  The  prisoner  is  given  a  chance. 
He  is  to'.d  by  the  court  that  his  future  fate  rests  with 
himself.  If  the  probation  officer  reports  that  he  is 
behaving  himself,  and,  especially  that  he  is  abstaining 
from  drink,  or  whatever  may  have  been  the  special 
vice  that  brought  him  into  trouble,  he  is  left  unmo- 
lested, and  finally  procures  complete  discharge.  Thus, 
instead  of  being  stained  and  incapacitated  by  serving 
a  term  in  prison,  he  is  put  on  his  mettle  with  every 
imaginable  inducement  to  do  his  best;  instead  of  the 
taxpayer  having  to  support  him  in  his  compulsory 
idleness,  and  the  community  being  deprived  of  the 
addition  to  its  sum  of  wealth  which  his  labor  would 
produce,  he  is  placed  in  conditions  where  he  has  all 


236  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

the  incentive  in  the  world  to  hunt  a  job  and  to  hold 
it  when  found. 

It  looks  like  a  good  scheme,  but  has  it  worked?  Let 
us  cross-examine  those  who  have  been  in  a  position 
to  discover.  Judge  Cleland  is  a  first-rate  authority, 
since  he  presided  for  thirteen  months  over  the  Max- 
well street  criminal  branch  of  the  municipal  court  of 
Chicago,  a  district  which  has  been  described  in 
McClure's  Magazine  as  follows :  "  In  this  territory 
murderers,  robbers  and  thieves  of  the  worst  kind  are 
born,  reared  and  grow  to  maturity  in  numbers  which 
exceed  the  record  of  any  similar  district  anywhere  on 
the  face  of  the  globe.  Murders  by  the  score,  shooting 
and  stabbing  affrays  by  the  hundred,  assaults,  bur- 
glaries and  robberies  by  the  thousand — such  is  the 
crime  record  each  year  for  this  festering  place  of  evil 
which  lies  a  scant  mile  from  the  heart  of  Chicago." 

The  judge  tells  us  that  when  he  took  charge  he 
found  that  an  immense  proportion  of  those  brought 
before  him  were  "  repeaters  "  —  persons  who  had  been 
sentenced  again  and  again.  He  says  that  of  9000 
imprisoned  during  the  previous  year,  having  been 
unable  to  pay  the  fines  imposed,  nearly  one-half  had 
been  there  all  the  way  from  twice  to  two  hundred  and 
one  times.  He  counted  eighteen  women,  each  of  whom 
had  served  100  terms.  After  dwelling  on  the  awful 
poverty  that  was  the  marked  characteristic  of  the  dis- 
trict, and  the  fact  that  its  inhabitants  universally 
regarded  the  law  as  a  juggernaut,  he  makes  the  fol- 
lowing comment :  "  In  substantially  every  case  that 
I  investigated  I  found  that,  notwithstanding  the  effi- 
cient management  of  our  workhouse,  the  offender  had 
come  out  a  less  desirable  member  of  society  than 
when  he  went  in ;  his  employment  was  gone,  his  rep- 


PROBATION,  PAROLE,  ETC,  237 

utation  was  injured,  his  will  weakened,  his  knowledge 
of  crime  and  criminal  practices  greatly  increased.  As 
one  young  girl  expressed  it,  '  It  is  not  a  house  of  cor- 
rection, but  a  house  of  corruption  '." 

Illinois  had  no  probation  law,;  there  were  no  paid 
probation  officers  and  the  judge,  had  to  devise  his  own 
methods  and  provide  his  own  machinery.  He  at  once 
made  an  innovation  by  holding  night  sessions  and 
adopted  the  following  plan :  On  the  prisoner  plead- 
ing guilty  he  was  given  the  maximum  sentence,  but  it 
was  immediately  suspended  on  the  accused  pledging 
himself  to  go  to  work  and  to  refrain  from  the  special 
vice  that  was  admitted  as  the  chief  cause  of  his  trou- 
ble. Reports  were  made  at  regular  intervals,  the 
released  prisoner  bringing  with  him  his  wife  or  other 
witness  to  testify  to  his  good  conduct. 

During  the  thirteen  months  in  which  Judge  Cleland 
presided  in  Maxwell  street  he  tried  more  than  8000 
cases,  in  1231  of  which  the  prisoner  was  placed  on 
probation,  and  he  records  that  92  per  cent,  were  faith- 
ful to  their  pledges.  Summing  up  his  experience  the 
judge  says:  "That  many,  perhaps  a  majority,  of 
criminals  can  be  wholly  reformed  without  imprison- 
ment through  the  means  of  suspended  sentence,  with 
little  or  no  expense  to  the  state,  I  am  satisfied  beyond 
a  doubt ;  and  this  will  be  done  when  we  can  eliminate 
from  the  treatment  of  criminals  the  desire  for  revenge 
and  look  only  to  the  good  of  the  individual  and  of 
society." 

It  should  be  added  that,  as  the  numbers  of  those 
released  on  probation  increased,  it  became  impossible 
for  Judge  Cleland  to  keep  personal  track  of  them,  and 
it  was  necessary  to  call  for  volunteer  probation  ofh-- 


238  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

cers.  One  hundred  business  and  professional  men 
responded  and  took  on  themselves  the  duty  of  visiting 
the  released  men  monthly,  reporting  on  regular 
blanks.  This  number  was  subsequently  increased  to 
about  400.  It  may  be  further  remarked  that  when  he 
entered  on  his  duties  Judge  Cleland  had  to  face  the 
opposition  of  the  400  liquor  dealers  of  the  district, 
who  were  much  prejudiced  against  him  on  account  of 
his  record  as  a  total  abstainer,  but  that  these  subse- 
quently became  his  warmest  supporters  and  pledged 
him  their  unanimous  support. 

One  demonstration  so  complete  is  worth  a  ton  of 
abstract  argument,  but  the  experience  testified  to  by 
Judge  Cleland  could  be  duplicated  from  many  other 
points.  For  example,  Judge  Sager  of  St.  Louis,  pre- 
viously referred  to,  states  emphatically  that  if  the 
courts  grant  probation  without  bias  or  prejudice 
"  they  will  work  more  for  good  and  humanity  than 
all  the  penitentiaries  that  blot  the  land  ".  He  cites 
numerous  instances  from  his  own  experience  where 
the  offense  was  of  an  aggravated  kind,  yet  the  even- 
tual outcome  fully  justified  the  merciful  course  pur- 
sued. On  one  of  these,  in  which  the  charge  was 
embezzlement,  he  makes  this  comment :  "  I  might 
add  that  this  case  is  unique  in  the  fact  that  the  de- 
tective department,  which  usually  pursues  this  class 
unrelentingly,  was  in  sympathy  with  the  defendant." 
The  comment  will  be  found  applicable  to  many  cities 
besides  St.  Louis. 

Despite  the  remarkable  demonstration  of  the  benefi- 
cent effects  of  probation  made  by  many  states  —  nota- 
bly New  York,  Massachusetts,  Illinois  and,  more  re- 


PROBATION,  PAROLE,  ETC.  259 

cently,  California  —  many  prison  and  reformatory  offi- 
cials apparently  still  preserve  a  critical  and  hostile 
attitude.  Thus  Homer  Folks,  president  of  the  Pro- 
bation Commission  of  New  York,  reported  at  the 
1907  congress  of  the  American  Prison  Association  as 
follows :  "  I  find  an  increasing  tendency  on  the  part 
of  some  such  officials  to  doubt  the  wisdom  of  proba- 
tion work ;  to  complain  that  the  numbers  who  come 
to  their  care  are  far  fewer  than  formerly,  but  that 
they  come  at  a  later  and  a  lower  stage,  when  their 
reform  is  less  hopeful."  In  answer  to  this  criticism 
it  may  be  pointed  out,  as  we  think,  with  fairness  that 
prison  officials  as  a  class  rest  generally  under  the  im- 
putation of  being  anxious  to  swell  the  numbers  of 
those  brought  under  their  care,  and  it  appears  to  us 
that  the  statement  that  such  numbers  are  "  far  fewer 
than  formerly"  is  itself  strong  testimony  in  favor  of 
probation.  It  well  may  be  that  those  who  find  their 
way  into  prison  again  represent  a  comparatively  hope- 
less class,  under  existing  conditions,  and  the  existence 
of  srch  a  class  is  admitted  freely.  But  that  there  are 
vast  numbers  who  do  not  return  is  surely  an  inestima- 
ble gain  both  to  the  individual  and  society.  The  plea 
that  the  reformation  of  those  who  do  come  back  is 
more  difficult  comes  with  a  bad  grace  from  institu- 
tions in  which,  as  a  whole,  the  entire  course  of  treat- 
ment tends  not  to  the  elevation,  but  the  degradation 
of  the  inmates. 

Under  probation,  as  has  been  explained,  judgment 
is  suspended,  the  prisoner  is  spared  the  stigma  of  a 
sentence  and  is  given  a  chance  of  retrieving  himself. 
It  must  be  distinguished,  therefore,  from  the  granting 
of  parole  to  a  prisoner  who  has  served  a  portion  of 


240  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

his  sentence,  and  whose  good  conduct  has  been  such 
as  apparently  to  warrant  the  officials  in  restoring  him 
his  liberty,  subject  to  certain  stipulations,  as  that  he 
shall  be  under  the  eye  of  the  probation  officer,  shall 
report  regularly,  and  so  forth.  The  granting  of  pa- 
roles is,  however,  so  closely  akin  to  probation,  and  is 
so  obviously  an  application  of  the  modern  philosophy 
that  detention  should  be  solely  for  the  protection  of 
society,  that  the  subject  may  be  fittingly  considered 
at  this  point. 

In  the  sixty-third  annual  report  of  the  Prison  As- 
sociation of  New  York  special  attention  is  paid  to  the 
generous  policy  adopted  toward  prisoners  in  Cleve- 
land, O.,  subsequent  to  the  election  of  Tom  Johnson 
as  mayor,  the  report  stating  that  "  eleven  hundred  and 
sixty  men  were  released  during  the  first  two  years  as 
against  eighty-forr  during  the  previous  administra- 
tion. Not  more  than  14  per  cent,  of  the  parole  men 
have  come  back."  We  allude  further  to  this  particu- 
lar instance  in  Chapter  XIV,  wherein  the  Cleveland 
Farm  Colony  is  discussed. 

In  this  same  report  considerable  attention  is  paid  to 
the  Elmira  reformatory,  N.  Y.,  the  charge  having 
been  made  that  the  institution's  returns  on  the  be- 
havior of  those  released  on  parole  had  been  unduly 
sanguine.  The  officials  declared  that  they  had  made 
additional  and  careful  investigation  and  had  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  "  probably  not  over  70  per  cent, 
of  the  Elmira  paroled  men  during  the  last  year  should 
be  classed  with  the  reformed."  The  falling  off  from 
the  previously  higher  standard  was  attributed  to  the 
depression  following  the  panic  of  1907,  and  the  report 
appended  the  following  reflections : 


PROBATION,  PAROLE.  ETC.  241 

"  May  we  not  also  infer  that  the  scandal  wave  in 
the  world  of  high  finance  had  its  effect  on  the  oper- 
ators in  the  lower  stratum  of  society  ?  They  read  how 
this  smart  crook  looted  a  railroad ;  another  an  insur- 
ance company ;  another  a  bank  —  how  a  whole  gang 
of  men  in  the  guise  of  contractors  picked  the  city's 
pockets  out  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dolhrs,  and 
yet  were  never  rounded  up  by  the  police.  How  can 
the  Elmira  boy  help  reasoning  that  '  flim-flam ' 
games  and  pocket  picking  are  not  only  lucrative,  but 
safe  and  respectable,  if  done  on  a  grand  scale  ?  " 

At  the  date  of  this  writing  the  California  papers 
are  noting  the  good  record  being  made  by  those  re- 
leased on  parole  from  San  Quentin  and  Folsom.  As 
the  result  of  the  persistent  agitation  kept  up  by  re- 
formers a  far  more  generous  policy  has  been  pursued 
there  of  late  than  prevailed  in  the  past,  the  figures 
showing  that  since  December,  1907,  more  than  five 
hundred  have  been  given  their  freedom  on  parole, 
whereas  in  the  fourteen  years  previous  the  annual 
average  had  been  only  thirteen.  The  closing  sen- 
tences of  this  book  will  show  how  unsatisfactory  the 
conditions  that  surround  the  granting  of  parole  still 
are.  However,  according  to  a  special  dispatch  to  the 
Los  Angeles  Times,  bearing  date  September  24,  1909, 
there  were,  at  the  beginning  of  the  month  of  August, 
273  prisoners  out  on  parole  from  Folsom  and  San 
Quentin^  During  the  month  only  five  violated  their 
parole,  and  four  of  these  were  back  in  prison.  Only 
one  man  out  of  the  entire  number  was  out  of  employ- 
ment at  the  end  of  the  month,  and  during  the  month 
the  paroled  prisoners  had  earned  a  total  of  $11,936, 
out  of  which  they  had  saved  $3838. 


242  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

In  connection  with  this  question  of  earning  capacity 
it  may  be  stated  here  that  at  the  last  session  of  the* 
legislature  a  bill  was  passed,  thanks  to  the  unremit- 
ting efforts  of  the  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the 
Prison  Reform  League,  making  an  annual  appropria- 
tion of  $4000  to  be  devoted  to  finding  employment  for 
discharged  convicts. 

It  should  be  added  also  that  there  is  another  un- 
satisfactory feature  connected  with  the  granting  of 
paroles,  and  one  that  there  seems  little  prospect  of 
removing  so  long  as  convicts  are  at  the  mercy  of  war- 
dens and  guards  appointed,  as  at  present,  exclusively 
throrgh  political  influence.  We  can  give  from  our 
own  personal  knowledge  more  than  one  instance  of 
a  prisoner  who,  though  having  every  right  to  imme- 
diate release  on  parole,  was  detained  in  the  peniten- 
tiary because  his  special  abilities  made  him  of  excep- 
tional use  to  the  institution.  Thus  merit  is  punished 
with  additional  imprisonment. 

The  preceding  chapters  of  this  book  will  have  been 
written  in  vain  if  they  have  not  succeeded  in  con- 
vincing the  reader  that  the  philosophy  of  punishment, 
based  on  vengeance  and  the  deterrent  principle,  has 
failed  utterly  to  produce  the  beneficent  results  prom- 
ised by  its  adherents.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  sub- 
mitted that  the  modern  philosophy  of  giving  the 
offender  a  chance,  as  represented  by  the  probation 
principle  —  and  its  subsidiary  development,  the  re- 
lease on  parole  of  those  whose  conduct  has  been  such 
as  to  inspire  confidence  —  from  the  very  outset  have 
more  than  warranted  the  assurances  held  out  by  the 
modern  school. 


PROBATION,  PAROLE,  ETC.  243 

Closely  interwoven  with  the  release  of  prisoners  on 
probation  —  and  indeed,  in  our  judgment,  necessary 
to  it  —  is  the  "  indeterminate  sentence  ",  whereby  the 
period  of  incarceration  depends  on  the  prisoner's  con- 
duct while  under  restraint.  It  represents  a  revolt 
against  the  despotic  powers  at  present  lodged  in  the 
hands  of  the  trial  judge,  which,  we  think,  can  be  pic- 
tured no  better  than  by  the  reproduction  of  the  fol- 
lowing passage  from  Brand  Whitlock's  "  Turn  of  the 
Balance  ". 

"  '  You  impress  the  court  as  a  man  who  has  aban- 
doned himself  to  a  life  of  crime,  and  the  court  feels 
that  you  should  receive  a  sentence  in  this  instance  that 
will  serve  as  a  warning  to  you  and  to  others.  The 
sentence  of  the  court  is  '  "  —  McWhorter  paused  as 
if  to  balance  the  scales  of  justice  with  all  nicety,  and 
then  he  looked  away.  He  did  not  know  exactly  how 
many  years  in  prison  would  expiate  Delaney's  crime ; 
there  was,  of  course,  no  way  for  him  to  tell.  He 
thought  first  of  the  number  ten,  then  of  the  number 
five,  then,  as  the  saying  is,  he  split  the  difference. 
These  proceedings  were  repeated  again  and  again. 
McWhorter  twirled  his  gold  glasses,  looked  out  of  the 
window,  made  his  little  speech,  guessed  and  pro- 
nounced sentence."  The  court  was  "  impressed  " ;  the 
court  "  did  not  know  exactly  " ;  the  court  "  split  the 
difference  " ;  the  court  "guessed  and  pronounced  sen- 
tence ". 

Anyone  who  takes  the  trouble  to  think  will  see  at 
once  that  this  is  playing  pitch  and  toss  with  human 
liberty,  and  that  only  by  the  happiest  of  flukes  can 
equity  thus  be  meted  out.  Moreover,  it  is  obvious 
that   Mr.   Whitlock   has   not  told   one-quarter   of  the 


244  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

story.  He  might  have  shown  that  while  one  judge 
was  of  a  philosophic  mind  and  disposed  to  view  crime 
as  a  social  disease,  another  occupied  the  ancient  stind- 
point  and  regarded  each  act  as  one  of  individual 
malevolence,  to  be  punished  and  avenged.  He  might 
have  shown  how  in  an  age  when  opinion  is  largely  in 
the  making  the  prisoner's  fate  depends  on  the  partic- 
ular school  of  thought  to  which  his  honor  happens  to 
belong.  He  might  have  dilated  on  the  condition  of 
the  court's  stomach,  its  prejudices,  its  subserviency  to 
political  interests  and  a  hundred  and  one  motives  that 
make  the  prisoner  at  the  bar  the  sport  of  circum- 
stances over  which  he  can  have  no  control.  All  of 
which  is  most  unsatisfactory  to  whoever  prizes  jus- 
tice, and  fills  the  heart  of  the  condemned  with  a  bit- 
terness for  which  there  is  no  sweetening. 

The  modern  school  of  penology,  therefore,  urges 
that  the  present  method  of  imposing  sentences  is,  at 
the  best,  happy-go-lucky;  that  it  is  utterly  unscien- 
tific ;  that  it  had  its  rise  in  the  days  of  one-man  power 
and  is  saturated  with  the  spirit  of  autocracy,  and  that 
it  looks  only  to  the  punishment  of  individual  crimes, 
instead  of  justice  and  the  reformation  of  the  indi- 
vidual crimin''l.  In  the  indeterminate  sentence  it  con- 
ceives that  it  is  advocating  a  system  under  which  each 
ofifender  would  be  made  the  arbiter  of  his  own  des- 
tiny, the  qrestion  of  the  date  at  which  he  shall  be  re- 
stored to  liberty  being  determined  by  his  own  conduct 
while  under  constraint.  It  claims  that  the  decision 
should  rest  in  each  case  not  with  a  judge  who  has  to 
guess  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  but  with  a  regu- 
larly organized  board,  able  to  act  with  deliberation 
and  justice,  since  it  would  have  spread  before  it  the 


PROBATION,  PAROLE,  ETC.  245 

record  prior  to  conviction  and  full  data  as  to  the  pris- 
oner's conduct  throughout  his  incarceration.  Regard- 
ing imprisonment  as  for  the  protection  of  society,  it 
maintains  that  a  board  so  constituted  would  be  able 
to  gauge  with  an  accuracy  that  the  best  of  individual 
judges  cannot  hope  to  attain  the  date  at  which  the 
criminal  may  be  restored  to  liberty  with  safety  to  his 
fellow-men. 

In  a  bill  introduced  at  the  1908-1909  session  of  the 
California  legislature,  and  having  for  its  object  the 
conversion  of  San  Quentin  into  a  reformatory,  Col. 
Griffith  T.  Griffith,  the  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the 
California  branch  of  the  Prison  Reform  League,  en- 
deavored to  procure  the  adoption  of  the  indeterminate 
sentence.  In  January,  1909,  he  submitted  to  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  state  a  lengthy  argument  in  favor  of  the 
proposed  change,  in  the  course  of  which  he  showed 
that  it  was  then  in  use  in  the  following  fifteen  states : 
Iowa,  Pennsylvania,  Wisconsin,  Connecticut,  New 
Hampshire,  Colorado,  Illinois,  Indiina,  Kansas,  Mas- 
sachusetts, Michigan,  Minnesota,  New  Jersey,  New 
York  and  Ohio.  In  Connecticut  and  New  Hampshire 
it  applies  to  state  prisons  alone,  while  Wisconsin  and 
Pennsylvania  make  it  applicable  only  to  their  reforma- 
tories. In  all  the  other  states  mentioned  it  applies  to 
the  inmates  of  both  state  prisons  and  reformatories. 
There  follows  this  explanation : 

•  "  The  indeterminate  sentence  plan  embodies  as  one 
of  its  basic  principles  that  the  individual  offender,  and 
not  the  crime,  shall  finally  determine  the  length  of 
confinement  or  detention  that  is  necessary  to  reform 
him.  The  principles  involved  in  the  indeterminate 
sentence  and  the  parole  system  are  logically  one  and 


246  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

the  same,  and  are  inseparable.  Probation  or  parole 
cannot  be  scientificilly  applied  to  the  convicted  per- 
son, except  through  the  indeterminate  sentence." 

The  last  reflection  would  seem  to  be  sufficiently  ob- 
vious. It  is  charged  against  the  existing  usage  that 
the  sentences  passed  are  of  necessity  largely  guess- 
work. The  convicted  man  is  given  at  haphazard  so 
many  years,  and  after  a  certain  proportion  of  them 
has  been  passed  within  the  prison  walls,  he  may  ob- 
tain his  parole,  provided  he  has  not  been  guilty  of  any 
serious  infraction  of  the  rules.  No  adequate  standard 
of  conduct  has  been  exacted ;  no  certain  answer  can 
be  given  to  the  question,  "  Is  it  safe  to  give  this  man 
his  liberty  ?  "  The  old  hit  or  miss  want  of  system 
prevails,  with  infinite  injustice  both  to  the  convict  and 
to  society. 

Some  of  us  may  be  able  to  remember  being  locked 
in  the  cupboard  "  until  we  were  good."  As  a  punish- 
ment it  may  not  have  been  the  wisest  in  the  world,  but 
it  carried  the  condition  that  with  the  assurance  of  sat- 
isfactory conduct  would  come  release.  This  would 
seem  to  be  a  sound  principle.  Is  it  beyond  the  reach 
of  human  ingenuity  to  work  it  into  practice? 

The  parole  commissioners  have  infinitely  greater 
opportunities  of  reaching  a  just  conclusion  than  an 
individual  judge,  almost  invariably  overburdened  with 
work,  can  possibly  enjoy.  They  have  before  them 
the  record  of  the  trial,  the  statement  of  the  judge  and 
clerk  and  much  other  matter  that  under  the  rules  of 
evidence  is  not  admissible  in  court.  If  there  have 
been  previous  convictions  they  have  the  time  to  ascer- 
tain that  fact.  They  have  the  man's  daily  record 
since  his  imprisonment  began ;  if  he  has  been  paid  for 


PROBATION,  PAROLE,  ETC.  247 

his  work,  as  he  should  be,  they  know  whether  he  has 
shown  a  willingness  to  save  in  order  that  he  may  get 
a  fresh  start  in  life.  From  every  standpoint  they  are 
in  a  position  to  pass  a  judgment  that  shall  have,  at 
least,  a  chance  of  approximating  justice. 

In  addition  to  abstract  arcfument  a  wealth  of  evi- 
dence culled  from  those  familiar  with  the  workings  of 
the  indeterminate  sentence  was  brought  forward  by 
Col.  Griffith  to  support  his  argument.  Among  them 
he  was  able  to  refer  to  Gov.  Cummins  of  Iowa,  Gov. 
Tyler  of  Virginia,  Gov.  Mead  of  Washington,  Maj. 
McClaughry,  warden  of  the  federal  prison  at  Fort 
Leavenworth,  Kan. ;  Hon.  Eugene  Smith,  president 
of  the  Prison  Association,  New  York ;  Hon.  Z.  R. 
Brockway  of  Elmira,  Charles  Dudley  Warner  and 
many  others,  all  of  whom  had  become  conversant  with 
the  practical  workings  of  the  indeterminate  sentence 
and  indorsed  it  emphatically.  Perhaps  Gov.  Hanly 
of  Indiana  may  be  quoted  most  convincingly,  because 
he  had  opposed  the  change  and  had  become  converted 
by  facts.  Under  date  of  September  16,  1907,  he 
tells  us: 

"  I  entered  upon  the  duties  of  the  executive  office 
prejudiced  against  it,  and  intending  to  condemn  and 
attack  it  when  opportunity  offered.  It  was  said  the 
shrewd  criminal  would  study  the  prison  rules  and  ob-. 
serve  them,  and  would  therefore  have  no  trouble  in 
making  good  with  the  board  and  in  regaining  his  lib- 
erty ;  that  the  poor  unfortunate  who  was  an  accidental 
and  not  a  professional  criminal,  who  lacked  advan- 
tages of  education,  who  knew  nothing  of  human  na- 
ture and  had  no  faculty  for  getting  into  the  good 
graces  of  the  board,  and  who  most  of  all  needed  the 


248  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

helping  hand  of  the  state,  would  be  compelled  to  stay 
the  limit  of  his  time."  He  then  tells  us  that  "  instead 
of  its  critic,  I  have  become  its  defender.  I  have  been 
convinced  by  what  I  have  seen  and  heard  and 
learned."  He  says  that  Indiana  is  able  to  speak  from 
results  after  an  experience  of  ten  years,  and  sums 
them  up  thus: 

"  Under  the  old  law,  as  we  have  seen,  70  per  cent, 
of  the  prisoners  discharged  drifted  directly  into  crim- 
inal ways,  utterly  failing  to  sustain  themselves ;  under 
the  present  law  25  per  cent.  Of  the  3745  prisoners 
paroled  from  April  i,  1897,  to  April  i,  1907,  the  life 
of  the  present  law,  2084  completed  their  parole  pro- 
bation. 

"  The  term  of  293  others  expired  while  on  parole, 
and  325  were  still  on  parole  April  i,  1907.  In  ten 
years  the  3745  paroled  prisoners  have  earned  $949,- 
773.63  and  .have  saved,  over  and  above  expenses, 
$187,345.63,  a  thing  absolutely  impossible  under  the 
old  law." 

Apparently  Gov.  Hanly's  successor,  Thomas  R. 
Marshall,  belongs  to  the  same  school  of  thought,  his 
address  before  the  Indiana  State  Conference  of  Char- 
ities and  Corrections,  held  in  Columbus,  October  23- 
26,  1909,  expressing  a  fervent  hope  "  that  the  confer- 
ence would  be  instrumental  in  building  up  a  public 
sentiment  capable  of  recognizing  in  the  criminal  a  sick 
man  needing  treatment  for  his  own  and  society's 
good." 

Amos  W.  Butler,  of  the  Indiana  State  Board  of 
Charities  and  a  noted  authority  on  this  subject,  suijis 
up  the  experience  of  the  states  that  have  adopted  the 
indeterminate  sentence  by  saying  that  "  a  much  larger 


PROBATION.  PAROLE.  ETC.  249 

per  cent,  of  those  discharged  under  the  old  system  re- 
turns to  lives  of  crime,  and  a  far  less  per  cent,  of 
those  so  discharged  manages  to  keep  out  of  prison. 
Under  the  new  system  by  far  the  larger  number  of 
those  released  after  the  parole  test  become  law-abid- 
ing citizens,  and  but  a  small  per  cent,  again  find  their 
way  behind  the  prison  walls." 

Justice  Franklin  J.  Fort  of  the  supreme  court  of 
New  Jersey  urges  the  indeterminate  sentence  to  usher 
in  "  a  new  and  enlightened  method  for  the  reduction 
of  crime,  namely,  the  study,  reformation  and  eleva- 
tion of  the  individual  man," 

Marquis  Barr,  warden  of  the  Anamosa  reforma- 
tory, Iowa,  bears  testimony  to  the  same  effect,  adding, 
as  a  clincher,  the  following  argument:  "If  a  man 
is  found  to  be  insane,  he  is  sent  to  the  hospital  to  be 
retained  until  cured,  or,  at  least,  until  he  is  no  longer 
dangerous  to  society.  The  commissioners  for  the  in- 
sane cannot  tell  how  long  this  may  take,  neither  can 
a  court  determine  the  length  of  time  a  man  should 
remain  in  prison  before  it  is  safe  to  release  him." 

It  should  be  noted  that  all  the  seventeen  states  that 
have  adopted  the  indeterminate  sentence  protect  the 
prisoner  by  fixing  a  term  beyond  which  he  cannot  be 
confined,  while  leaving  it  to  him  to  work  out  his  own 
salvation  by  showing  that  he  can  be  safely  restored 
to  society  at  an  earlier  date. 

Hitherto  our  codes  have  furnished  no  uniform 
standard.  In  Maine,  Mississippi  and  Iowa,  for  ex- 
ample, it  has  been  possible  for  a  judge  to  give  a  man 
a  life  sentence  for  perjury ;  in  New  Hampshire,  Ken- 
tucky and  Connecticut  five  years  has  been  the  limit, 
while  in   Delaware  tlie  offense  has  been   punishable 


250  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

only  by  fine.  Incest,  that  has  been  p^^nishible  in 
Louisiana  with  imprisonment  for  life,  has  brona^ht 
only  six  months  in  Virginia  and  a  fine  of  $ioo  in  Del- 
aware. In  the  state  of  New  York  he  who  steals 
$24.95  is  but  a  misdemeanant,  while  he  who  takes 
$25.05  is  a  felon,  and  Samuel  J.  Barrows,  president  of 
the  International  Prison  Association,  said  only  last 
year :  "  Ten  thousand  yorng  men  every  year  lie  neg- 
lected in  the  iails  and  county  penitentiaries  of  the 
state  of  New  York  because  there  is  no  power  under 
the  law  to  sentence  them  to  the  state  reformatories." 
In  a  word,  the  old  system,  looking  solely  to  punish- 
ment, gives  no  guarantee  either  for  the  protection  of 
society  or  the  reclamation  of  the  offender,  and  there- 
fore the  old  system  is  doomed.  In  the  words  of  an 
address  issued  recently  by  the  Massachusetts  Prison 
Association :  "  The  changes  which  have  been  made 
in  the  past  fifteen  years  in  methods  of  dealing  with 
crime  have  eliminated,  in  large  measure,  the  penal 
element  from  the  judicial  system.  The  meting  out  of 
punishment  has  ceased  to  be  the  main  function  of  the 
courts.  In  the  new  system  the  reformation  and  recla- 
mation of  the  criminal  have  become  (in  theory  at 
least)  the  central  purpose."  The  philosophy  of  the 
Prison  Reform  League  cannot  be  expressed  in  better 
terms.  It  seeks,  however,  to  translate  theory  into 
fact. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

JUVENILE  DELINQUENTS 

The  passage  from  the  old  to  the  new ;  from  the 
regime  of  vengeance  and  deterrence,  operating  through 
the  base  passion  of  fear,  to  that  of  social  protect'on 
and  individual  reformation,  naturally  finds  its  most 
complete  expression  in  the  treatment  of  juvenile  de- 
linquents. We  say  "  natrrally  "  because  this  innova- 
tion, which  is  of  distinctly  modern  growth  and  has 
leaped  into  almost  universal  favor,  bears  all  the  ear- 
marks of  the  scientific  thought  that  is  gradually 
dominating  the  age  and  that  this  work  endeavors  to 
expound.  With  this,  therefore,  we  conclude  our 
examination  of  the  crime  problem. 

The  juvenile  laws  are,  in  reality,  an  extension  of 
the  probation  principle,  first  embodied  in  the  laws  of 
Massachusetts  in  1878.  Judgment  is  suspended,  and 
the  offender,  with  the  co-operation  of  the  proba- 
tion officer  and  other  agencies  at  the  command  of  the 
juvenile  court,  is  given  a  chance  to  reform.  Separate 
trials  for  children  were  instituted  first  in  Massachu- 
setts and  New  York,  but  Illinois,  by  a  law  that  went 
into  eflfect  June  i,  1899,  was  the  first  state  to  install 
the  juvenile  court  as  we  have  it  today. 

In  the  agitation  for  this  reform  women's  organiza- 
tions have  played  a  most  conspicuous  part,  and  the 
entire  movement  doubtless  should  be  regarded  as 
part  of  that  greater  social  revolt  which  is  protesting 
against  the  immolation  of  child  life  on  the  altar  of 
commercial  greed ;  which,  keenly  alive  to  the  fatal  ef- 


252  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

fects  of  the  slum  environment,  is  establishing  city 
playgrounds  throughout  the  country,  and  is  manifest- 
ing itself  in  many  other  directions,  such  as  the  in- 
creasing attention  paid  to  the  treatment  of  defective 
children,  the  insistence  that  children  need  recreation 
and  substantial  food  more  than  they  need  discipline 
and  book  learning,  and  so  forth.  In  fact  we  shall 
find  that  the  leading  administrators  of  the  juvenile 
court  laws  lay  far  greater  stress  on  the  spirit  in  which 
they  are  administered  than  on  the  actual  text.  The 
entire  movement,  which,  we  repeat,  has  spread  with 
extraordinary  rapidity,  is  the  outcome  of  a  revolt  of 
the  spirit;  of  the  strictly  modern,  scientific  conception 
that  it  is  absurd  to  punish  offenses  that  are  the  in- 
evitable effects  of  well  ascertained  causes. 

Within  the  past  ten  years  thirty  states  have  passed 
laws  providing  for 'the  application  of  the  probation 
principle  to  juvenile  delinquents.  We  guard  ourselves, 
however,  by  adding  that,  so  rapid  is  the  march  of 
events  in  this  particular  field,  other  states  may  have 
taken  action  since  this  calculation  was  made.  Tn  ac- 
cordance with  the  universal  rule  thit  central  bodies 
invariably  move  slowly,  the  federal  government  still 
continues  to  prosecute  and  imprison  promiscuously 
juvenile  and  adult  offenders,  as  do  fourteen  other 
states.  All  but  four  of  these  are  in  the  Southern  sec- 
tion of  the  country. 

No  one  can  speak  with  greater  authority  on  this 
subject  than  does  Judge  Ben  B.  Lindsey,  of  the 
Juvenile  Court  of  Denver,  Colo.,  to  which  office  he 
was  re-elected  in  the  fall  of  1908  by  a  plurality  of 
17.728,  against  three  other  candidates  and  the  op- 
position  of  both  the  old  party  macliines.     Incidentally 


JUVENILE  DELINQUENTS.  253 

it  may  be  remarked  that  a  most  suggestive  tribute  to 
the  high  regard  in  which  the  juvenile  laws,  and  Judge 
Lindsey's  administration  of  them,  are  held  was  fur- 
nished by  those  who  are,  of  all  others,  the  most  com- 
petent critics.  Despite  Judge  Lindsey's  protest  the 
Denver  boys  worked  as  a  unit  for  his  re-election, 
which  upset  all  the  prophecies  of  the  political  wise- 
acres who  had  declared  his  success  impossible.  We 
shall  quote  at  considerable  length  from  Judge  Lindsey, 
selecting  first  a  brief  passage  from  "  The  Reformation 
of  Juvenile  Delinquents  through  the  Juvenile  Court ". 
We  give  this  extract  to  show,  in  particular,  that  the 
writer  distinguishes  clearly  between  the  old  and  new 
school  of  criminology,  and  that  he  is  convinced  that 
crime  is  on  the  increase,  especially  among  the  youth- 
ful.   He  says: 

"  The  history  of  criminology  will  show  that  punish- 
ment of  individuals  is  not  a  successful  method  of  pre- 
venting crime.  If  it  were  there  ought  to  be  fewer 
people  in  jail  every  year.  On  the  contrary  crime  is 
on  the  increase.  Each  year  adds  to  the  inmates  of 
nearly  every  reformatory  in  this  country.  There  is 
no  justification  for  the  punishment  of  a  human  being 
unless  it  is  necessary  to  help  him,  or  (what  is  more 
important  than  to  the  individual)  unless  it  is  neces- 
sary to  protect  society,  that  is,  to  best  secure  to  all 
individuals  security  of  life,  property,  and  the  pursuit 
of  happiness.  Any  other  view  would  be  to  admit  the 
doctrine  of  vengeance  as  just,  wise  and  humane. 
What  we  seek  is  justice,  administered  with  wisdom, 
humanity  and  charity.  It  is  a  sad  and  at  the  same 
time  important  thing  that  the  increase  of  crime  is 
largely  among  the  youth  of  this  nation.     Facts  and 


254  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

figures  in  this  respect  come  almost  like  blows  to  re- 
mind us  of  our  responsib"lity,  and  to  suggest  our 
short-sightedness.  It  is  said  that  over  half  the  in- 
mates of  reformatories,  jails  and  prisons  in  this  country 
are  under  twenty-five  years  of  age.  Some  authorities 
say  under  twenty-three.  We  now  know  that  the  seeds 
of  crimmality  in  the  great  majority  of  cases  are 
planted  in  yorth.  The  English  prison  commission  re- 
cently .reported  to  Parliament  that  the  age  of  sixteen 
to  twenty  was  essentially  the  criminal  age,  and  between 
ten  and  sixteen  the  most  important  age  for  the  care 
and  formation  of  character.  The  Earl  of  Shafts- 
bury,  after  much  study,  declared  that  not  two  in  an> 
one  hundred  criminals  in  London  had  formed  the 
habits  which  led  to  criminality  after  the  twentieth 
year.  There  are  from  three  to  five  times  as  many 
children,  in  proportion  to  population  by  ages,  arrested 
every  year  in  the  cities  of  this  country  as  adults. 
Seventeen  thousand  under  sixteen,  it  is  said,  were 
arrested  in  Chicago  the  year  before  the  juvenile  court 
law  went  into  effect.  A  similar  condition  may  be 
found  in  nearly  every  large  city." 

Life  is  the  great  teacher.  All  of  us  have  certain 
experiences  that  drive  home  lessons  we  never  should 
have  learned  from  books,  and  we  shall  give  pages 
from  the  reminiscences  of  Judge  Lindsey  and  others, 
as  illustrating,  better  than  could  any  abstract  argument, 
the  principles  involved.  This  has  been  the  method 
pursued  throughout  this  book,  the  argument  against 
the  regime  of  hate,  brutality  and  violence  being  en- 
forced at  every  turn  by  holding  beneath  the  reader's 
nose,  so  persistently  that  he  cannot  escape  the  nauseat- 


JUVENILE  DELINQUENTS.  255 

ing  odor,  the  filth  served  up  to  society  in  the  name  of 
justice. 

In  the  pamphlet  previously  referred  to  Judge  Lind- 
sey  tells  us  the  story  of  a  little  boy  aged  eleven;  a 
child  full  of  a  thousand  entirely  natural  desires.  One 
of  these  was  to  make  a  kite.  "  He  must  have  the  kite 
sticks,  and  a  knife  wherewith  to  cut  the  sticks. 
Child-like  he  asked  a  very  ignorant  and  half  brutal 
father  for  his  knife.  He  was  met  with  a  curse  and  a 
blow.  He  was  told  to  get  the  knife  the  best  way  he 
could.  To  It's  childish  mind  his  father  was  the  sum 
and  substance  of  authority.  He  saw  the  barbers  in 
the  shop  using  sharp  knives.  One  night  he  entered 
that  shop  and  took  therefrom  a  razor  with  which  to 
cut  things.  There  was  a  breaking,  an  entering  and 
a  tak'ng.  In  the  eyes  of  the  law  he  was  a  burglar. 
In  my  eyes  and  yours  he  was  a  misdirected,  misguided 
child.  No  more  a  burglar  th^n  you  or  I.  Yet  the 
harsh  machinery  of  the  criminal  law  took  that  child 
into  the  criminal  court,  and  under  the  charge  of  com- 
mon brrglary  he  was  sentenced  to  jail  and  served  his 
time.  Then  followed  a  career  of  similar  offenses,  gradu- 
ally drifting  to  a  more  serious  character.  He  was  hunted 
by  the  police,  arrested,  sent  to  the  Industrial  School, 
returned  to  his  former  occupation  of  steaMng;  then 
hunted  like  a  dog  by  police  and  detectives ;  lain  in 
wait  for  in  the  night,  and  finally  shot  at  like  a  wild 
animal  in  the  mad  efforts  of  the  police  to  catch  a 
desperate  burglar  of  the  age  of  sixteen.  He  was  then 
brought  to  the  juvenile  court,  a  wrecked,  distorted 
in>age.  Now,  I  ask  you  who  is  responsible  for  this 
creature,  bright  and  alert  as  a  thief,  already  well 
.  progressed    in    the    hardening   process    of    soul    and 


256  CRIME  AND  CRT^TTNAT.S 

conscience?  I  say,  the  state.  I  say,  almost  anyone 
except  that  child.  I  once  asked  this  boy,  after  he 
had  been  months  on  probation  in  the  juvenile  court, 
how  long  it  took  to  try  him  the  first  time.  "  Oh," 
said  he,  "  the  guy  with  the  whiskers  who  sat  up  on  the 
high  bench  looked  over  to  the  cop,  and  the  cop  says 
to  him,  '  this  is  a  very  bad  kid ;  he  went  into  Smith's 
barber  shop  and  took  two  razors,  and  he  admits  it, 
yer  Honor ;'  and  vvh?t  does  the  guy  do  but  hikes  me 
right  off  to  Golden  before  I  had  a  chance  to  say  a 
word.'' 

This  is  not  the  Prison  Reform  League  talking.  It 
is  a  judge,  a  responsible  judge;  probably  the  most 
universally  admired  judge  in  the  United  States.  It 
is  surely  not  difficult  to  read  between  the  lines  in  the 
foregoing  passage,  and  discover  Judge  Lindsey's  real 
opinion  of  our  administration  of  the  criminal  law 
which,  as  President  Taft  himself  has  recently  acknowl- 
edged, is  a  national  disgrace. 

Another  of  Judge  Lindsey's  stories  is  that  of  a 
young  man  of  twenty-two,  who  was  first  sent  to  jail 
at  the  age  of  twelve.  The  night  before  his  execution 
he  said,  with  bitter  hatred  in  his  voice :  "  I've  got 
even  with  the  state:  I've  killed  two  cops."  As- 
suredly Judge  Lindsey  is  not  hostile  to  the  philosophy 
the  Prison  Reform  League  preaches  perpetually,  that 
hate  and  violence  can  only  beget  a  progeny  of  hate 
and  violence. 

Mrs.  Hannah  Kent  SchoflF,  president  of  the  National 
Congress  of  Mothers,  and  chairman  of  the  Juvenile 
Court  Committee,  New  Century  Club,  Philadelphia, 
gives  the  following  account  of  the  origin  of  the 
juvenile    court    movement    in    Philadelphia,    and   we 


JUVENILE  DELINQUENTS.  257 

reproduce  it  at  considerable  length,  for  it  teems  with 
sug.s^estions : 

"  One  morning  in  May,  1899,  ^^e  Philadelphia 
papers  gave  an  account  of  the  arrest  and  imprisonment 
of  a  little  girl  for  setting  fire  to  a  house.  Her  picture 
was  publ'shed,  and  with  startling  headlines  she  was 
heralded  to  the  world  as  a  '  Prodigy  of  Crime.' 
Motherless  since  she  was  two  years  old,  an  inmate 
of  an  orphanage,  and  then  a  drudge  in  a  city  board- 
ing-house, with  no  companionship  except  that  of 
ignorant  servants,  there  had  been  little  opportunity  lor 
moral  responsibility  or  development. 

"  Friendless,  arrested,  imprisoned,  tried  in  the 
criminal  court,  and  sentenced  to  the  House  of  Refuge, 
and  only  eight  years  old ! 

"  When  asked  why  she  started  the  fire  she  frankly 
said,  *  To  see  the  fire  burn  and  the  engines  run.' 

'*  Branded  as  a  criminal,  sentenced  to  the  companion- 
ship of  girls  guilty  of  crimes  of  far  greater  menace  to 
her  character,  what  hope  did  the  future  hold  for  her? 
The  injusf'ce  of  that  poor  child's  treatment  led  me  to 
the  determination  to  rescue  her,  if  possible,  and  to 
do  for  her  what  I  could  wish  some  one  to  do  for 
my  own  little  girl  were  she  in  a  similar  position, 
as  she  might  have  been  if  she  had  been  motherless 
and  friendless  at  such  a  tender  age.  An  interview 
with  the  judge,  and  an  appeal  to  be  permitted  to 
place  the  child  in  a  good  home  that  I  had  secured  for 
her,  resulted  in  his  granting  the  request,  and  now 
after  five  years  she  is  as  sweet,  attractive  and  good 
a  child  as  can  be  found  anywhere. 

"  When  I  remonstrated  with  the  judge  for  sending 
such  a  child  to  the  reformatory,  he  said  he  had  no 


258  CRT^TH  AND  CRniTNALS' 

choice  in  the  matter,  for  there  was  no  other  place  to 
send  her,  and  they  did  not  want  her  even  there,  be- 
cause of  the  character  of  the  offense.  Investigation  into 
the  methods  of  procedure  with  children  only  intensified 
a  sense  of  the  injustice  and  wrong  that  was  being 
committed  in  the  name  of  justice. 

"  There  were  five  hundred  children,  ranging  from 
six  to  sixteen  years,  in  the  Philadelphia  county  prison 
in  igoo.  There  were  from  two  to  three  hundred 
children  every  month  passing  through  the  station- 
houses  of  the  city,  standing  in  critical  need  of  intelli- 
gent direction  and  guidance,  yet  receiving  nothing. 
There  were  children  in  every  county  prison  through- 
out Pennsylvania,  committed  for  trifling  offenses,  and 
subjected  to  influences  that  could  not  fail  to  confirm 
evil  habits.  There  were  over  eight  hundred  ch'ldren 
in  each  reformatory,  and  no  distinction  was  made  as  to 
the  children  committed  there.  Waifs,  homeless  little 
ones,  children  accused  of  serious  crimes  were  indis- 
criminately sent  to  the  same  institution.  It  was  made 
easy  to  send  them  there.  The  state  put  a  premium  on 
parental  responsibility,  and  welcomed  all  who  wished 
to  receive  education  and  support  at  the  expense  of  the 
state. 

"  Any  magistrate  could  commit  a  child  to  a  reform- 
atory on  the  parent's  statement  of  incorrigibility,  and 
no  effort  seems  to  have  been  made  to  prove  the 
parent's  statement.  The  child's  side  of  the  case  was 
never  heard.  The  result  was  that  stepfathers  and 
stepmothers,  desiring. to  be  freed  from  care  of  chil- 
dren, took  this  method  of  throwing  on  the  state  the 
duty  that  belonged  to  them,  and  more  than  half  the 
children  in  the  House  of  Refuge  were  there  because 


JUVENILE  DELINQUENTS.  259 

of  complaints  of  parents,  usually  stepfather  or  step- 
mother. The  stigma  of  a  reformatory  was  thus  put 
unjustly  on  hundreds  of  children,  and  the  state  was 
subjected  to  an  expense  that  was  totally  unwar- 
ranted."    Is  not  the  story  suggestive? 

Certainly  we  have  had  reformatories,  supposed 
to  be  for  the  improvement  of  the  young,  for  many 
years  past.  But  what  has  been  their  character?  We 
have  before  us  the  report  on  the  reformatories  and 
penal  institutions  of  the  United  States,  made  by  Robert 
T.  Devlin,  president  of  the  State  Board  of  Prison 
Directors  of  California.  It  is  not  very  recent,  being 
dated  1890,  but  it  is  quite  exhaustive  and  contains  in 
its  opening  pages  some  highly  edifying  reflections. 
For  example :  "  The  prison  principle  is  more  or  less 
hateful  to  the  adult  delinquent;  it  is  an  abhorrence  to 
the  youthful  offender.  The  prison  principle  in  reform 
peculiarly  outrages  the  natur^  of  child  life.  The  shock 
penetrates  to  the  ends  of  his  being  and  body  and  soul 
rise  up  against  it  in  the  fiercest  antagonism ;  for,  as 
soon  as  born,  the  great  law  is  upon  the  child  that  he 
springs  toward  the  development  of  a  man.  To  this 
end  his  Creator  has  endowed  him  with  the  most  in- 
tense activity  and  restlessness.  The  child  loves  and 
pants  for  freedom.  His  every  contact  with  nature  is 
but  his  communion  with  a  second  mother." 

Turn  now  to  the  first  detailed  report,  that  on  the 
State  Industrial  School  for  Juvenile  Offienders,  at 
Kearney,  Nebraska.  This  was  a  much  admired  in- 
stitution, being  organized  on  the  family  or  cottage 
plan,  which  was  supposed  to  represent  the  most  ad- 
vanced ideas.  A  system  of  merits  and  demerits  is 
represented  as  in  force,  and  a  study  of  the  rules  as 


26o  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

to  this  will  show  what,  in  the  eyes  of  the  managers, 
constitutes  the  ideal  of  good  and  evil  conduct  among 
the  inmates.  The  regulations  read  thus :  "  The  fur- 
nishing of  correct  information  to  an  officer  of  an  in- 
mate planning  to  escape  entitles  the  informer  to  one 
hundred  merits  (the  largest  reward  mentioned). 
For  an  attempt  to  escape  an  inmate  forfeits  all  merits 
earned  by  him,  and  may  receive  such  additional  pun- 
ishment as  the  superintendent  may  determine." 

In  other  words,  we  acknowledge  that  the  child,  by 
the  very  necessity  of  his  nature,  pants  for  freedom, 
but  the  attempt  to  realize  that  unquenchable  aspiration 
is  made  the  most  serious  offense  of  which  he  can  be 
guilty.  On  the  other  hand,  the  institution  is  run  on 
the  spy  system,  the  good-conduct  medal  going  to  the 
most  industrious  informer.  Surely  none  but  prison 
officials  could  have  thought  out  such  a  morality,  and 
an  examination  of  other  'reformatories  dealt  with  in 
this  report  discloses  the  same  feature  recurring  with 
sickeningly  monotonous  regularity^ 

Now  consider  the  following,  which  is  matter  of  rec- 
ord: In  April,  1903,  a  Brooklyn  man,  aged  twenty- 
two,  was  released  from  the  reformatory  at  Napanoch, 
N.  Y.  As  is  the  custom  he  was  presented  with  $10 
on  being  discharged  from  custody,  which  he  immcr 
diately  invested  in  the  purchase  of  a  revolver.  He 
then  went  directly  to  the  house  occupied  by  his  mother 
and  shot  the  woman  dead.  His  explanation  was  that 
he  had  thought  the  matter  over  carefully  during  his 
last  incarceration  and  determined  to  take  revenge  on 
his  mother,  as,  thanks  to  her,  he  had  passed  sixteen 
of  his  twenty-two  years  in  various  reformatory  insti- 


JUVENILE  DEIJNQUEXTS.  261 

tntions,  including-  the  Catholic  Protectory,  the  House 
of  Refuge  and  the  Elmira  reformatory. 

In  the  Outlook  of  August,  1908,  Harry  Hall,  treas- 
urer of  the  Berkshire  Industrial  Farm,  tells  of  a  boy 
of  twelve  who  had  been  convicted  six  times  of  what 
would  be  considered  serious  offenses  in  the  case  of  an 
adult,  the  first  conviction  having  been  when  he  was 
only  seven  years  old.  He  speaks  of  a  lad  who.  on 
being  sentenced  to  state  prison,  said  to  the  judge: 
"  I  want  to  say  that  when  I  first  went  to  the  House  of 
Refuge  I  was  a  good  boy;  when  I  came  out  I  was  a 
burglar."  Unless  we  miss  our  guess  this  boy  still 
had  in  him  the  soul  of  a  militant  reformer,  who  was 
not  afraid  to  speak  out  for  the  public  good. 

Evidently  the  reformatory  of  the  past  has  failed  to 
reform,  and  it  may  be  noted  that  in  the  first  story 
quoted  from  Judge  Lindsey  the  lad  referred  to  speaks 
of  being  sent  to  "  Golden ",  practically  without  a 
hearing,  for  his  initial  offense.  "  Golden "  is  the 
Colorado  State  Industrial  school  for  boys,  and  the 
judge  himself  alludes  to  it  as  "that  awful  fate  to 
every  boy." 

There  is  reason  to  believe,  however,  that  the  hu- 
manitarian spirit  which  has  been  the  conspicuous 
feature  of  the  entire  movement  for  the  establishment 
of  juvenile  courts  has  brought  as  one  of  its  conse- 
quences a  great  change  in  the  character  of  industrial 
institutions  for  the  reformation  of  the  young.  Judge 
Lindsey  himself  declares  that  good  industrial  schools 
are  much  better  for  training  of  delinquents  than  is  the 
street,  and  that  more  mistakes  are  made  in  not  com- 
mitting to  them  boys  and  girls  than  in  committing 
them,  for  "  these  schools  when  properly  conducted,  as 


262  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

most  of  them  are,  through  their  splendid  superintend- 
ents, are  doing  a  service  to  the  state  that  is  poorly  ap- 
preciated." He  declares  that  "  these  industrial  schools 
are  not  what  was  known  as  the  old  reform  school 
of  ten  or  twenty  years  ago.  Their  methods  are  edu- 
cational rather  than  punitive,  and  such  an  institution 
should  exist  in  every  state  and  near  every  large  city." 
And  it  must  be  constantly  remembered  that,  in  Judge 
Lindsey's  own  words :  "  The  real  significance  of  the 
juvenile  court  movement  in  America  has  not  been  so 
much  the  spread  of  law,  or  anything  new  in  law,  as 
the  spread  of  the  spirit  involved  in  regarding  every 
boy  or  girl  brought  to  court  as  one  to  be  saved,  to  be 
strengthened,  understood,  helped  and  not  hurt  or  de- 
graded." In  short  the  essence  of  the  entire  move- 
ment is  that  the  letter  killeth,  but  the  spirit  giveth 
life ;  that  the  combination  of  such  reforming  influences 
as  it  may  be  possible  to  enlist  through  the  services  of 
the  probation  officer,  the  home  or  the  industrial  school 
are  more  important  than  the  technical  work  of  the 
court.  It  expresses  the  growing  understanding  of 
the  truth  that  mere  state  machinery  in  itself  is  im- 
potent for  good ;  the  bitter  cry  sent  up  by  Oscar  Wilde 
when  he  wrote: 

"  Each    narrow   cell    in   which   we   dwell 
Is  a  foul  and  dark  latrine. 
And  the  fetid  breath  of  a  living  Death 

Chokes  up  each  grated  screen, 
And  all.  but  Lust,  is  turned  to  dust 
In  Humanity's  machine." 

This  spirit  is  well  exhibited  in  another  passage 
from  Judge  Lindsey's  writings.  In  Charities  and  the 
Commons,  under  date  of  November  7,  1908,  he  relates 


JUVENILE  DELINQUENTS.  263 

some  of  his  experiences  in  the  juvenile  court  of  Den- 
ver and  s^ys :  "  The  law  in  Denver  has  cut  very  little 
fijynre.  We  had  practically  no  law  up  to  March,  1903. 
For  more  than  two  years  we  brought  children  to  our 
court  charged  with  needing  correction.  We  brought 
them  there  with  the  same  consideration  and  for  the 
same  reasons  that  we  should  bring  a  child  abandoned 
on  the  streets  because  of  neglect.  We  could  see  no 
difference  between  the  boy  of  twelve  who  was  aban- 
doned in  the  streets  through  no  fault  of  his  own,  and 
the  boy  of  the  same  age  who  because  of  environment, 
lack  of  care  or  the  fault  of  others,  thoughtlessness, 
misdirected  energy,  or  even  meanness,  had  become 
technically  a  thief.  In  truth  he  was  not  a  thief  at  all. 
The  state  and  others  by  bungling  in  handling  him 
might  make  him  one.  If  he  could  not  make  a  con- 
tract until  twenty-one  with  a  fellow  citizen  we 
thought  it  was  no  more  than  fair  in  his  dealings  with 
the  state  that  he  should  not  be  held  to  the  same  con- 
tract with  the  state  to  obey  its  laws  or  suffer  the  same 
treatment  and  penalties  as  the  man  or  woman  past 
twenty-one." 

It  is  unfortunately  the  case  that  the  administration 
of  the  juvenile  delinquent  laws  has  been  too  often  in 
the  hands  of  those  who  have  not  been  inspired  by 
these  broad-minded  principles,  and  from  many  points 
the  complaint  has  come  that  too  often  the  proceedings 
are  criminal ;  that  the  child  is  tried  as  a  criminal,  com- 
ing into  court  and  leaving  it  with  the  feeling  that  the 
whole  power  of  the  state  has  been  arrayed  against  him. 
We  believe  this  erroneous  standpoint  is  gradually  being 
abandoned,  and  we  find  in  the  juvenile  court  law 
recently  adopted  by  Kentucky  what  seems  to  us  a 


264  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

correct  and  concise  statement  of  the  spirit  that  should 
animate  all  such  laws.  It  reads:  "The  proceedings 
involving  the  child  shall  not  be  deemed  to  be  criminal 
proceedings,  and  the  child  shall  not  be  considered  a 
criminal,  but  as  a  child  in  need  of  aid,  encouragement 
and  guidance."  In  a  similar  vein  Warren  F.  Spald- 
ing, secretary  of  the  Massachusetts  Prison  Association, 
writes  of  the  law  recently  adopted  there :  "  The  im- 
portant difference  between  the  treatment  of  children 
and  adults  is  that  the  proceedings  are  not  criminal ; 
the  complaint  is  for  '  being  a  delinquent  child  ',  and  not 
for  committing  a  crime ;  there  is  no  pica,  of  course ; 
no  conviction  and  no  sentence.  The  child  is  adjudged 
to  be  a  delinquent  child,  and  upon  that  judgment  pro- 
bation or  commitment  to  an  institution  for  reformation 
may  follow." 

There  is  another  feature  of  the  average  juvenile 
court  laws  that  should  not  be  overlooked.  They  may 
not,  it  is  true,  touch  on  the  fundamental  causes  of 
crime,  and  that  great  crime  producer,  poverty,  but  they 
at  least  edge  in  that  direction  by  pursuing  the  sub- 
sidiary causes.  Thereby  they  betray  their  parentage  — 
the  scientific  trend  of  modern  thought,  which  insists 
on  getting  at  the  reasons  for  existing  conditions.  Thus 
Judge  Lindsay,  writing  shortly  after  the  adoption  of 
the  law  creating  a  separate  juvenile  court  in  Denver, 
declares  that  a  vigorous  campaign  will  be  waged 
against  divekeepers  and  proprietors  of  similar  places 
that  harbor  and  corrupt  the  youth  of  the  community, 
and  adds :  "  We  shall  make  a  special  effort  to  reach 
the  causes  of  crime." 

The  same  line  of  thought  is  accentuated  in  an  article 
by  Judge  Lindsey  that  appeared  in  the  Independent 
of  August  27,  1908,  in  which  he  says :    "  I  believe  that 


JUVENILE  DELINQUENTS.  265 

the  police  and  the  courts  arc  concerned  with  the  law- 
lessness of  more  than  100,000  children  every  year,  and 
that  means  a  million  in  each  generation  of  childhood. 
Should  there  not  be  some  warning  in  this  appalling 
fact?  Some  of  you  may  think  it  is  an  indictment  of 
the  home  and  the  school.  It  is  rather  an  indictment 
of  certain  social  and  economic  conditions  with  which 
the  home  and  the  school  are  powerless  to  contend. 
The  child  has  no  home  where  it  has  no  play."  And 
again :  "  Perhaps  the  saddest  thing  in  my  experience 
is  the  cursing  of  heartless  parents  that  I  have  heard 
from  the  lips  of  neglected  boys  and  girls.  IMay  not 
the  state  suffer  a  similar  penalty  in  that  curse  that 
comes  to  it  through  increased  crime  among  our 
youth?" 

Answering  a  series  of  questions  in  Charities  and 
the  Commons,  under  date  of  August  15,  1908,  Judge 
Lindsey  has  this  to  say :  "  I  find  the  home  always 
more  to  blame  than  the  school.  There  is  a  disposition 
upon  the  part  of  thousands  of  parents  in  every  city  to 
shirk  duties  because  of  the  idea  they  seem  to  have  that 
it  should  be  all  performed  by  the  school.  Such  parents 
are  certainly  dangerous  citizens."  Observe  how  firmly 
he  places  his  finger  on  the  great  evil  of  the  entire  pro- 
tective philosophy  which  has  dominated  the  United 
States  so  disastrously,  as  we  are  just  beginning  to 
learn.  The  parents  trust  to  the  public  official  to  look 
after  the  morals  of  their  children,  shuffling  off  on  the 
shoulders  of  political  appointees  their  own  responsi- 
bilities. A  peril  against  which  Buckle,  Herbert  Spen- 
cer, Huxley  and  the  leaders  of  scientific  thought  have 
warned  the  world  unceasingly. 

In  the  same  article  Judge  Lindsey  punctures  another 
delusion  to  which  our  national  vanity  leads  us,  but  one 


266  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

that  the  Prison  Reform  League  has  been  careful  to 
expose  —  viz.,  that  the  poor  immigrant  is  responsible 
for  the  continual  increase  of  crime.  He  says :  "  I  am 
not  one  of  those  who  lay  much  stress  upon  immigra- 
tion as  a  cause  of  crime  in  this  country,  either  adult 
or  juvenile.  My  own  investigations  of  police  records 
(and  I  have  investigated  those  of  nearly  all  large 
cities)  have  rather  startled  me  by  showing  how  few 
of  our  juvenile  criminals  are  of  foreign  parentage. 
Perhaps  more  children  of  immigrants  get  into  court, 
but  my  judgment  is  that  this  is  largely  because  of  pov- 
erty and  ignorance.  I  am  coming  more  and  more  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  causes  of  crime  must  be 
searched  for  among  those  evils  that  afflict  our  social, 
economic,  industrial  and  political  conditions." 

We  have  had  such  frequent  occasion  to  criticize  the 
south  as  behind  the  spirit  of  the  age  in  questions  relat- 
ing to  prison  reform  that  it  gives  us  profound  pleasure 
to  note  the  fact  that,  in  the  matter  of  juvenile 
offenders,  she  is  showing  every  sign  of  an  awakened 
conscience. 

In  1907  Judge  Lindsey  made  a  tour  of  the  south, 
and  he  expressed  himself  much  shocked  at  th&  treat- 
ment of  juvenile  offenders.  '*  The  matron  of  that  jail 
told  me  she  believed  there  were  several  hundred  boys 
that  night  in  jails  in  that  state  under  similar  condi- 
tions. Assuming  that  there  were  only  200,  it  meant 
tnat  over  1000  boys  a  year,  at  least,  had  such  experi- 
ences, and  in  ten  years  10,000  toys  under  sixteen  were 
so  treated.  (In  that  one  particular  state  it  must  be 
understood.)  Crawford  Jackson  of  Atlanta,  Georgia, 
Wiio  is  making  a  crusade  for  juvenile  protectories  in 
the  south,  shows  us  pictures  of  boys  in  stripes  on  the 


JUVENILE  DELINQUENTS.  267 

chain  gang,  mixing  with  various  types  of  criminals. 
I  have  seen  one  or  two  such  instances  myself." 

But  as  regards  the  treatment  of  its  juvenile  delin- 
quents, at  least,  the  south  apparently  is  undergoing  a 
change  of  heart.  Judge  Lindsey  pays  a  warm  tribute 
to  the  work  the  southern  women  are  doing.  He  points 
out  that  United  States  Senator  Robert  L.  Taylor  of 
Tennessee  is  a  pioneer  of  more  than  twenty  years' 
standing  in  the  juvenile  court  movement;  that  Gov- 
ernor Vardaman's  various  messages  to  the  Mississippi 
legislature  have  shown  him  to  be  strongly  in  favor 
both  of  juvenile  and  general  prison  reform,  and  that 
Gov.  Haskell  of  Oklahoma  stands  for  juvenile 
courts.  Judge  N.  B.  Feagin  has  done  splendid  juve- 
ile  court  work  in  Birmingham,  Ala.,  for  years  past, 
having  procured  the  appointment  of  probation  officers 
to  look  after  the  colored  children,  many  of  whom  are 
sent  to  a  farm  under  the  supervision  of  the  probation- 
ary force.  The  Birmingham  women  have  established 
an  industrial  school,  to  which  children  can  be  sent 
instead  of,  as  hitherto,  to  the  jails  and  penitentiaries. 
Good  "W'Ork  has  been  done  in  Mobile,  Ala.,  and,  in  spite 
of  legal  entanglements  which  caused  the  juvenile  court 
law  passed  by  the  Louisiana  legislature  to  be  declared 
unconstitutional,  there  is  practically  a  juvenile  court 
in  operation  in  New  Orleans. 

As  might  be  expected  there  is  much  good  literature 
bearing  on  this  special  branch  of  criminology.  The 
Juvenile  Court  Record,  Unity  building,  Chicago,  is  a 
monthly  devoted  to  this  subject,  and  the  same  concern 
publishes  a  booklet  on  the  Juvenile  Court  Laws  of 
Illinois,  with  the  blank  forms  in  use,  which  has  been 
compiled  by  Hon.  T.  D.  Hurley.    It  also  issues  excel- 


2f8  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

lent  acldres3es  delivered  by  Judge  Stiibbs  of  the 
jrvenile  court  of  Indianapolis,  Judge  Heuisler  of  the 
juvenile  court  of  Baltimore,  and  Judges  Tuthill  and 
Mack  of  the  juvenile  court  of  Chicago.  The  juvenile 
court  of  Denver  also  puts  out  some  admirable  pam- 
phlets, and  the  Survey,  formerly  Charities  and  the 
Commons,  of  New  York  City,  has  devoted  several 
numbers  almost  entirely  to  this  question. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

CONCLUSION 

There  remains  only  the  summing. up.  In  the  first 
eleven  chapters  of  this  book  we  publish  an  indictment 
that  is  terrifying  and  cannot  be  gainsaid.  We  had  no 
wish  to  make  it  so.  Our  business,  as  we  conceived  it, 
was  to  state  the  facts,  and  naturally  we  sought  to  make 
our  work  attractive  by  the  judicious  mingling  of  light 
and  shade.     But  the  picture  is  all  black. 

Our  civilization  has  to  its  credit  material  achieve- 
ments such  as  the  world  has  never  known ;  yet  crime, 
and  especially  crimes  of  violence  and  those  committed 
by  the  young,  increases.  We  boast  a  literature  that 
has  ransacked  the  accumulations  of  ages  for  inspiring 
thought ;  yet,  as  a  nation,  we  cling  tenaciously  to  the 
savage's  instinct  for  revenge,  embodied  in  capital  pun- 
ishment. When  we  speak  of  torture  we  think  of  the 
Dark  Ages;  yet  in  the  penitentiaries  and  reforma- 
tories—  God  save  the  mark  —  of  leading  states  tor- 
ture, in  most  revolting  forms,  is  practiced  habitually. 

Turning  from  the  jailer  to  an  examination  of  the 
methods  employed  by  those  entrusted  with  the  sacred 
duty  of  protecting  society  and  administering  justice  we 
find  no  relief.  In  the  eye  of  the  arresting  officer  the 
poor  man  is  always  guilty,  and  the  desirable  thing  is 
to  keep  the  criminal  docket  well  filled.  The  police  run 
men  in  without  legal  warrant,  and  repeatedly  without 
the  slightest  show  of  reason ;  "  sweat  "  prisoners  who, 
according  to  the  fundamental  principle  of  criminal  law, 
are  innocent;  suppress  free  speech,  and  in  countless 


270  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

Other  ways,  with  which  the  public  is  now  long  familiar, 
trample  under  foot  rights  supposed  to  be  secured  be- 
yond all  question  by  the  constitution  of  the  country. 
Throughout  the  country,  safely  entrenched  behind  the 
fortifications  of  powerful  and  profoundly  corrupt  polit- 
ical combinations,  the  fee  system  pursues  its  relentless 
course,  with  net  untiringly  outspread,  trafficking  as 
relentlessly  in  human  liberty  as  a  fishmonger  traffics 
in  fish. 

In  county  and  city  jails  the  victims  thus  entrapped  — 
always  the  poor,  since  the  deposit  of  money  brings  im- 
mediate release  —  are  caged  under  conditions  that  are 
a  disgrace  to  the  nation's  reputation.  No  distinction 
is  drawn  between  the  presumedly  innocent  and  the  con:- 
victed ;  apparently  the  one  eflFort  is  to  make  .the  place 
of  detention  an  inferno  and  den  of  vice. 

Reviewing,  in  Chapter  XI,  the  practical  results  of 
the  application  of  these  methods,  every  one  of  which 
springs  naturally  from  a  fanatical  belief  in  the  virtue 
of  the  deterrent  philosophy,  we  gaze  on  a  harvest  such 
as  may  well  be  calculated  to  make  the  reflective  shud- 
der ;  the  expert  who,  in  this  country,  above  all  other 
men,  has  for  years  past  made  it  his  special  business  to 
com.pile  the  statistics  of  lawlessness,  telling  us  coldly 
that  the  national  crime  is  —  murder.  The  tree  of  vio- 
lence has  borne  its  natural  fruit. 

With  Chapter  XII,  wherein  we  have  called  definite 
attention  to  the  birth  of  the  modern  school  of  crim- 
inology and  have  considered  such  new  developments 
as  probation,  parole  and  the  indeterminate  sentence, 
the  light  begins  to  break.  It  shines  in  still  more 
strongly  in  the  chapter  on  juvenile  delinquents. 
These  are  great  gains  and  we  should  be  the  last  to 


CONCLUSION.  271 


minimize  their  importance.  For  thousands  upon 
thousands  the  application  of  these  modern  methods 
has  spelled  individual  salvation,  and  that  is  very  much. 
Yet  it  is,  in  reality,  only  an  infinitesimal  part  of  the 
advantage  actually  won.  The  substantial  victory  lies 
in  the  fact  that,  at  last,  a  breach  has  been  made  in 
the  wall  of  the  deterrent  philosophy,  and  through  that 
breach  there  will  enter  a  truer  and,  therefore,  a  more 
humane  philosophy  than  that  to  which  mankind  has 
been  crucified  so  long.  For  modern  thought  can  no 
longer  stomach  the  doctrine  of  unlimited  individual 
responsibility,  and  insists  that  crime,  like  all  other 
manifestations  of  human  activity,  is  the  inevitable  out- 
come of  definite  causes.  Thus  the  triumph,  the  inev- 
itable triumph,  of  the  modern  school  of  criminology, 
with  its  stubborn  determination  to  ascertain  and  re- 
move the  causes  of  crime,  means  the  death  warrant 
of  the  old  school  of  punishment  based  on  the  de- 
grading passions  of  fear  and  revenge.  We  have  said 
it  "  ad  nauseam  ",  but  we  reiterate  it  once  more,  for 
it  represents  the  sole  object  for  which  this  book  has 
been  written. 

Let  us  not  be  too  sanguine.  Such  an  Augean  sta- 
ble as  that  of  our  treatment  of  crime  and  criminals 
cannot  be  cleansed  with  a  rose-water  squirt.  A  flood 
of  icy  criticism  and  crystal-clear  thought  will  be  im- 
peratively needed,  and  we  shall  have  to  fight  desper- 
ately for  the  opportunity  of  turning  on  the  hose.  It 
is  well  to  form  Prisoners'  Aid  societies,  to  help  dis- 
charged convicts  and  to  perform  other  of  those  kindly 
offices  that  appeal  to  the  self-sacrificing.  But  these 
efforts  are  only  succor  to  the  wounded  after  they  have 


272 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

been  thrust  ignominiously  from  the  enemy's  camp. 
They  make  no  attack  on  the  fortress  which  ultimately 
must  be  captured.  Nevertheless  they  are  valuable  as 
showing  that  the  tide  of  kindliness  is  rising,  and  that 
means  much;  for  so  long  as  men  continue  indifferent 
to  human  suffering  and  blind  to  the  possibilities  of 
human  life  no  progress  can  be  made. 

The  point  made  in  the  preceding  paragraph  is  well 
stated  by  S.  S.  McClure,  in  "  The  Tammanyizing  of  a 
Civilization,"  McCliire's  Magazine,  November,  1909. 
He  says :  "  The  cities  of  the  United  States  are  filled 
to  overflowing  with  organizations  of  all  kinds  to  op- 
pose crime  and  to  dispense  aid  to  the  masses  of  crim- 
inals and  unfortunates  who  are  created  by  present 
conditions.;  law  and  order  societies,  temperance  or- 
ganizations, college  settlements,  committees  to  put 
down  the  traffic  of  women.  All  these  work  well  and 
earnestly,  but  their  efforts  are  either  the  work  of 
salvage,  after  the  great  damage  is  done,  or,  at  most, 
attempts  at  a  very  partial  cure.  They  assist  the  pop- 
ulation in  very  much  the  same  way  that  a  servant 
might  who  was  hired  to  drive  away  the  flies  from  the 
table  of  a  dinner  party  set  upon  the  edge  of  a  cess- 
pool. What  our  country  needs  is,  not  more  societies 
to  remove  flies,  but  the  removal  of  the  cesspool." 
The  case  could  not  be  stated  better. 

We  believe  the  tide  is  setting  strong  in  the  direc- 
tion of  humaner  policies.  We  believe  there  are  many 
wardens  who  are  anxious  to  emulate  the  example  set 
by  such  men  as  Maj.  Robert  W.  McClaughry  of  the 
Fort  Leavenworth  (Kansas)  federal  penitentiary, 
Warden  Murphy  of  Joliet,   111.,   and  Warden  J.   C. 


CONCLUSION.  273 


Sanders  of  Port  Madison,  Iowa,  all  of  whom  are  sat- 
urated with  modern  thought  on  this  problem.  But 
let  us  not  be  too  sanguine.  Politics  dominates  every 
detail  of  the  administration  of  the  criminal  law,  and 
the  best  warden  in  the  world  has  strings  upon  him. 

The  changes  so  imperatively  needed  never  can  be 
brought  about  by  wardens,  or  official  boards,  or  even 
by  charitable  organizations  formed  for  that  special 
purpose.  For,  however  greatly  such  bodies  may  be 
influenced  on  occasion  by  some  exceptional  individ- 
uality, the  trend  of  such  bodies  is  always  toward  con- 
servatism, and  those  whose  specialty  is  the  relieving  of 
distress  are,  above  all  others,  liable  to  fall  victims  to 
red  tape,  regarding  their  charges  no  longer  as  indi- 
vidualities, but  as  numbers  on  the  register. 

Excellent  as  has  been  its  work  in  the  past  the 
American  Prison  Association,  to  whose  reports  we 
owe  much  of  our  information,  seems  to  us  to  exhibit 
this  fatal  tendency.  In  its  infancy  it  could  not  induce 
a  warden  to  attend  its  sessions.  Now  the  presence 
of  wardens  and  other  officials  is  the  most  distinctive 
feature  of  its  annual  gatherings,  and  it  prides  itself 
upon  this  feature.  To  us  it  is  a  most  alarming  symp- 
tom.    Consider  the  actual  facts. 

Within  the  last  few  years,  thanks  to  the  labors  of 
such  men  as  Brand  Whitlock,  Hopper  and  Bechdolt, 
Charles  Edward  Russell  and  many  other  writers,  the 
public  has  become  dimly  aware  that  conditions  in  our 
state  prisons  are  of  the  most  atrocious  character. 
What  ordinary  citizen  ever  dreamed  of  men  being 
chained  down  in  baths  and  tortured  to  the  point  of 
death  with  electricity  and  the  water  cure?    Who  of 


274  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


us  ever  supposed  that  many,  very  many  — for  in  this 
book  we  have  dealt  only  with  a  few  choice  samples  — 
of  these  institutions  were  the  infernos  they  have  been 
proved  to  be?  A  great  light  has  been  suddenly 
turned  on,  and  where  such  conditions  as  we  have  de- 
scribed are  found  to  exist  it  is  the  warden,  above  all, 
who  stands  out  as  the  center  of  an  unspeakably  crim- 
inal group;  guilty  of  crimes  beside  which  those 
charged  against  their  most  hardened  prisoners  sink 
into  insignificance.  Therefore  the  wardens  are  the 
men  who,  above  all  others,  are  today  on  trial  at  the 
bar  of  public  judgment,  and  there  should  be  no  mis- 
take —  no  mistake  whatever  —  about  this. 

Before  us  lies  The  Survey  of  September  4,  1909,  con- 
taining a  report  of  the  last  congress  of  the  American 
Prison  Association,  held  at  Seattle  in  August,  1909. 
It  is  written  by  Isabel  C.  Barrows,  widow  of  the  late 
S.  J.  Barrows,  a  most  distinguished  criminologist,  and 
it  contains  this  paragraph,  evidently  intended  to  con- 
vey the  warmest  praise :  "  The  chaplains  had  their 
own  meetings,  as  did  the  physicians,  open  to  the  pub- 
lic and  dealing  with  such  subjects  as  tuberculosis,  the 
mental  and  physical  characteristics  of  criminals  ",  etc. 
The  point  emphasized,  as  calling  for  admiration,  is 
that  these  meetings  were  public,  and  the  point  we  em- 
phasize is  that  the  report  maintains  the  discreetest 
silence  on  a  vastly  more  important  fact,  viz.,  that  the 
entire  congress  adjourned  while  the  wardens  held 
their  meetings  —  behind  closed  doors. 

Doubtless  the  wardens  discussed  the  prevalence  of 
torture,  for  it  has  become  a  reeking  scandal  of  the 
gravest  proportions,  but  they  discussed  it  in  secret; 


CONCLUSION.  275 


and  the  congress  itself,  in  its  open  meetings,  never 
touched  the. subject. 

At  the  very  be^^inning  of  this  book  we  insisted  that 
the  statements  of  chiefs  of  police  and  similar  officials 
were  to  be  received  with  the  most  profound  distrust. 
At  its  very  close  we  say  that,  as  a  whole,  the  official 
reports  rendered  by  wardens  in  the  past  have  proved 
to  be  among  the  most  unreliable  documents  ever  sub- 
rr.i'^ted  to  a  credrlous  public.  For  example,  turn  to 
"Modern  Prison  Systems,"  an  official  report  made  to 
congress  in  190?,  and  you  will  find  the  warden  of 
Fol?om  penitentiary,  in  the  state  of  California,  an- 
nouncing: "We  do  not  chiin,  cage  or  whip  pris- 
oners. Our  punishment  consists  in  (sic)  solitary  con- 
finement with  bread  and  water,  and  partial  or  total 
suspension  of  privileges.  A  punishment  record  is 
kept  by  the  captain  of  the  guard."  At  that  very  time 
discharged  prisoners  from  Folsom  brought  with  them 
terrifying  stories  of  the  punishments  in  use,  the  fa- 
vorite one  being  the  "  strappado  ",  a  cruelly  refined 
variation  of  the  bull  rings. 

For  a  further  edifying  example  we  recommend  the 
reader  to  turn  again  to  Chapter  III,  in  which  is  re- 
corded the  awful  record  of  the  Illinois  State  Reforma- 
tory at  Pontiac,  as  exposed  by  the  legislative  commit- 
tee which  made  an  investigation  in  1908.  Yet  at  the 
National  Prison  Association  congress  held  in  1907  the 
superintendent  of  that  very  institution,  M.  M.  Mal- 
lary,  read  a  paper  on  "  Reformatory  Methods  as  Ap- 
plied to  the  Criminal  Classes  ",  in  which  he  indulged 
in  the  following  lofty  sentiments :  "  Punishment  has 
no  legitimate  place  in  the  system,  except  as  a  means 


276  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

to  the  end  sou.s:ht  —  the  aim  should  be  to  turn  boys 
and  men  of  various  degrees  of  bidness  into  p^ood  citi- 
zens by  the  reformation  of  their  habits  and  the  de- 
velopment of  their  capabilities." 

Any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  consult  "  Mod- 
ern Prison  Systems,"  the  official  report  just  men- 
tioned, will  be  struck  with  the  difficulty  evidently  ex- 
perienced by  the  compilers  in  obtaining  answers  to 
the  question's  sent  out  to  wardens,  and  Lydston  testi- 
fies to  the  same  eflfect  in  his  work,  "  The  Diseases  of 
Society,"  expressing  himself  as  follows :  "  The  lack 
of  interest  in  the  scientific  study  of  the  criminal  in 
America  is  easily  demonstrated.  Desiring  to  compare 
observations,  I  recently  wrote  a  large  number  of  let- 
ters with  formulated  inquiries  to  the  chief  officers  of 
the  principal  penitentiaries  of  the  United  States.  The 
paucity  of  answers  and  the  evidence  of  unsystematic 
and  superficial  observation,  although  not  a  matter  of 
wonderment,  were  very  suggestive.  In  some  in- 
stances the  replies  were  written  by  lay  officials,  in  oth- 
ers by  prison  physicians.  There  was  an  absolute  lack 
of  homogeneity  in  observations.  The  most  intelligent 
and  valuable  letter  of  all  came  from  the  warden  of  the 
Wisconsin  state  prison,  who,  though  a  layman,  is  evi- 
dently possessed  of  some  ambition  above  drawing  his 
salary.  Some  of  the  opinions  expressed  by  the  va- 
rious prison  physicians  were  what  might  be  expected 
from  men  whose  faculty  of  observation  and  general- 
ization has  not  yet  risen  to  the  plane  of  their  intelli- 
gence. Havelock  Ellis  met  with  a  similar  experience 
in  England.  He  says :  '  Some  of  my  correspond- 
ents, I  fear,  had  not  so  much  as  heard  that  there  was 
a    criminal    anthropology '."     These    conditions    un- 


CONCLUSION.  277 


doubtedly  will  continue  as  long  as  politics  dominates 
the  prison  situation. 

Before  bidding  the  reader  farewell  we  strike,  with 
infinite  relief  to  ourselves,  a  brighter  note.  In  the 
Outlook  of  January  18,  1908,  appeared  an  account,  by 
Frederic  C.  Howe,  of  the  Cleveland  Farm  Colony, 
and  we  can  think  of  no  fitter  close  to  the  examina- 
tion we  have  been  conducting  in  these  pages.  After 
relating  that  three  years  previous  Mayor  Johnson's 
rival  for  the  chief  executive  office  had  twitted  him  in 
debate  with  the  fact  that  the  workhouse  under  his 
administration  had  failed  to  make  money,  and  that 
the  mayor  had  replied,  "  we  are  not  trying  to  make 
money  out  of  prisoners ;  we  are  trying  to  make  men  " ; 
the  writer  proceeds  to  a  description  of  the  colony, 
which  embraces  a  1900-acre  tract  of  farm  and  quarry 
land.  Despite  the  fact  that  many  of  those  sent  there 
have  been  committed  for  comparatively  serious  of- 
fenses, there  is  no  stockade,  no  one  wears  a  ball  or 
chain,  there  are  no  guards,  and,  as  the  superintendent 
told  the  writer,  probably  no  one  could  be  found  on 
the  place  who  carried  a  revolver  or  even  a  stick.  The 
colony  is  under  the  management  of  Dr.  Harris  R. 
Cooley,  who  had  been  for  seven  years  director  of 
charities  and  corrections  under  Mayor  Johnson's  ad- 
ministration. 

Dr.  Cooley  explained  the  fact  that  they  had  been 
able  to  dispense  with  the  usual  safeguards  by  making 
the  work  to  which  the  men  were  set  interesting  and 
healthful,  and  he  added :  "  Even  from  a  financial  point 
of  view  this  experiment  justifies  itself.  But  that  is 
the  least  important  consideration.  The  principal 
thing  is  that  we  restore  the  prisoner's   self-respect. 


^78  __         CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS    

He  grows  strong  by  outdoor  work.  He  goes  back  to 
life  again  able  to  meet  the  temptations  which  the  city 
ofifers.  And  a  very  large  percentage  of  these  men 
never  come  back.  But,  better  even  than  that,  we  re- 
store their  respect  and  confidence  in  themselves.  For 
we  treat  them  like  men  and  they  respond  to  it.  We 
have  had  hundreds  of  prisoners  at  work  on  the  farm 
here,  and  only  a  handful  have  ever  taken  advantage 
of  their  liberty.  And  it  was  the  other  prisoners  who 
were  most  incensed  at  their  escape.  They  were  un- 
happy because  some  of  their  associites  had  broken 
their  word.  That  is  why  we  do  not  need  guards  to 
watch  these  men." 

How  true  it  is  that  the  liar's  real  punishment  is,  not 
that  others  cease  to  believe  him,  but  that  he  himself 
loses  all  belief  in  the  veracity  of  others!  And  just 
as  certainly  the  real  punishment  of  those  who  wed 
themselves  to  the  deterrent  philosophy,  the  creed  of 
fear,  is  that  they  become  physical  cowards,  placing 
their  sole  reliance  on  the  gun  and  the  revolver. 

Mr.  Howe  continues  his  account  by  saying: 
"  There  is  another  thing,  too,  which  the  files  of  the 
newspapers  tell  of  this  experiment  for  making  men. 
Four  or  five  years  ago,  when  many  prisoners  were 
paroled  by  Dr.  Cooley  from  the  workhouse  because 
they  could  not  pay  their  fines,  the  ministers  of  the 
city  and  the  newspapers  united  in  a  protest  against 
the  wholesale  jail  delivery  which  was  going  on.  Dr. 
Cooley  qvietly  justified  his  policy  by  saying:  'The 
rich  avoid  imprisonment  by  paying  the  fines  which 
the  police  court  imposes.  The  poor  cannot  pay  their 
fines  because  they  are  poor,  and  are  sent  to  the  work- 
house   in    consequence.     That    is    imprisonment    for 


CONCLUSION.  279 


debt,  and  debt  due  the  city.  And  imprisonment  for 
debt  is  contrary  to  justice  and  humanity.'  This  same 
policy  has  been  continued  ever  since.  Now  the  city 
accepts  it  without  prc/test.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  ac- 
cepts it  with  pride.  Probably  no  one  of  the  radical 
departures  from  established  traditions  which  have 
been  accomplished  during  the  administration  of 
Mayor  Johnson  meets  with  such  universal  approval 
as  does  the  humanizing  of  the  treatment  of  the  poor 
and  the  semi-criminal  class.  Whether  the  criminals 
have  been  made  better  or  worse  (and  there  seems  to 
be  no  doubt  that  they  are  made  better)  the  city  itself 
has  been  bettered  by  this  policy.  Cleveland  is  a  living 
example  of  the  philosophy  of  Tolstoy,  that  society  suf- 
fers more  than  the  offender  by  its  punishments,  for 
society  is  hardened  by  the  public  expression  of  ven- 
geance." 

Meanwhile  it  is  a  pleasure  to  report  that,  thanks  to 
the  liberal  views  entertained  by  many  modern  war- 
dens, conditions  have  improved  at  certain  points.  On 
the  Pacific  coast,  for  example,  the  penitentiary  at  Sa- 
lem, Ore.,  is  understood  to  be  nothing  like  the  hell 
described  in  "  Thirteen  Years  in  the  Oregon  Peniten- 
tiary;" and  Joseph  Kelley,  the  author  of  that  work, 
which  was  published  in  1908,  admits  that  the  situa- 
tion is  better.  The  present  superintendent,  C.  W. 
James,  has  been  in  office  some  seven  years  and  claims 
to  have  abolished  flogging  entirely,  to  have  done  away 
with  the  wearing  of  stripes,  save  as  a  punishment, 
and  to  have  put  an  end  to  the  lockstep  and  the  rule 
of  absolute  silence.  A  newspaper,  Lend  a  Hand,  is 
published  in  the  prison,  and  the  convicts  have  a  band 
which  gives  weekly  performances.  Baseball  is  played 
10 


28o  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

Saturday  afternoons,  and  the  superintendent  reports 
that  deprivation  of  the  right  to  witness  the  game  has 
proved  a  most  effective  punishment.  For  the  last 
two  years  a  parole  system  has  been  in  force,  but  it  ap- 
plies only  to  prisoners  confined  under  an  indetermi- 
nate sentence.  Forty-nine  convicts,  out  of  a  prison 
population  given  as  402,  had  been  released  on  parole 
during  the  past  two  years,  according  to  recent  figures, 
and  all  but  seven  were  reported  as  having  made  good. 

In  the  Washington  state  penitentiary,  at  Walla 
Walla,  the  parole  system  and  indeterminate  sentence 
are  in  operation,  and  the  state  furnishes  work  in  a 
rock  quarry  to  those  who  are  considered  worthy  of 
parole,  but  find  themselves  unable  to  procure  employ- 
ment. Flogging  is  said  to  have  been  abolished,  and 
the  officials  name  solitary  confinement  in  the  dungeon, 
on  bread  and  water,  and  the  "  Oregon  boot "  as  the 
punishments  in  vogue.  This  boot  is  an  iron  collar 
weighing  eleven  pounds  and  fastened  round  the  ankle. 
Minor  offenses  are  also  punished  by  the  offender  be- 
ing compelled  to  wear  a  black  and  white  suit,  while 
those,  guilty  of  more  serious  misconduct  are  put  in 
stripes  of  black  and  red.  The  lockstep  is  still  in  use. 
Recently  a  reform  school  has  been  established,  for 
first-term  convicts  between   16  and  30  years  of  age. 

The  prison  is  run,  however,  at  a  heavy  annual  loss, 
the  profits  of  the  jute-mill,  which  represents  the  sole 
industry  carried  on,  being  given  at  about  $16,000  a 
year.  As  against  this  the  legislature  makes  annual 
appropriations  for  the  prison  amounting  to  more  than 
$300,000  a  year.  It  may  be  interesting  to  compare 
this  with  the  history  of  the  Minnesota  state  prison  at 
Stillwater,  generally  regarded  as  one  of  the  best  con- 


CONCLUSION.  281 


ducted  in  the  country.  The  records  show  that  four- 
teen years  ago  the  expenses  of  running  that  prison 
exceeded  the  earnings  by  $35,285,  or  $70  per  capita, 
while  in  i907-'o8  the  earnings  exceeded  the  expenses 
by  $257,229,  or  $189.69  per  capita. 

It  might  be  supposed  that  this  revolution  at  Still- 
water had  been  accomplished  at  the  sacrifice  of  the 
convicts,  but  the  reverse  has  been  the  case.  Warden 
Henry  Wolfer  having  instituted  a  regime  that  is  thor- 
oughly up  to  date.  The  grading  and  parole  systems 
are  in  active  operation,  and  a  genuine  effort  to  uplift 
the  convict  appears  to  have  been  made.  It  is  to  be 
noticed  particularly  that  inmates  are  paid  for  over- 
time and  extra  work,  and  the  last  edition  of  the  Hand 
Book  issued  by  the  authorities  shows  that  nearly  $2000 
is  being  paid  monthly  to  prisoners. 

There  seems  good  ground  also  for  hoping  that  con- 
ditions are  improving  in  the  San  Quentin  (Cal.)  peni- 
tentiary, judging  from  the  address  delivered  by  the 
new  warden,  John  E.  Hoyle,  at  the  American  Prison 
Association  congress,  held  in  Seattle  last  August. 
Mr.  Hoyle  is  reported  as  having  said,  in  part : 
"  When  I  took  charge  of  San  Quentin  the  straight- 
jacket  was  in  use,  and  guards  who  were  making  the 
most  reports  of  breaches  of  discipline  were  consid- 
ered the  best.  I  let  it  be  understood  that  I  did  not 
believe  that  any  considerable  number  of  the  prisoners 
were  disposed  wilfully  to  disobey  the  rules,  and  that 
I  would  allow  no  punishment  without  full  investiga- 
tion. My  beliefs  have  been  justified ;  discipline  has 
improved  wonderfully.  Privileges  have  been  aug- 
mented.    I  allow  the  prisoners  to  have  a  brass  band 


282  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

and  to  give  entertainments,  and  have  furnished  ma- 
terials, etc.,  with  gratifying  results.  But  I  have  let 
it  be  understood  that  rigorous  punishment  would  be 
administered  to  wilful  and  persistent  violators  of  the 
rules,  but  only  after  thorough  investigation.  A  great 
majority  of  the  convicts  are  in  harmony  with  the  idea 
that  rigorous  punishment  is  necessary  with  some. 

"  The  parole  law  is  a  success.  I  have  impressed 
upon  prisoners  this  opportunity  for  freedom.  The 
prisoner  is  imbued  with  the  idea  that  the  hand  of  so- 
ciety is  not  against  him,  but  is  willing  to  give  him  a 
chance.     It  gives  them  hope. 

"I  am  opposed  to  all  spy  and  stool-pigeon  systems. 
No  prisoner  should  be  employed  with  the  understand- 
ing that  he  is  expected  to  make  reports  to  the  warden." 

The  address  in  question  was  delivered  almost  im- 
mediately after  that  in  which  Col.  Griffith  had  given 
his  own  experiences  in  San  Quentin,  and  may  have 
been  intended  as  a  rejoinder.  If  so,  it  is  a  fair  illus- 
tration of  the  benefits  reaped  when  even  a  little  light 
is  thrown  upon  abuses,  and  we  express  the  opinion 
once  again  that  immense  pressure  will  have  to  be  ap- 
plied all  along  the  line  before  substantial  gains  can  be 
permanently  acquired.  What  has  been  accomplished 
in  that  direction  up  to  this  time  should  be  regarded 
merely  as  the  most  modest  of  beginnings. 

Whether  or  no  this  book  will  bring  a  money  profit 
we  cannot  tell ;  but,  if  it  does,  all  present  profit  will 
be  devoted  to  the  release  of  those  now  lying  in  the 
California  penitentiaries  of  Folsom  and  San  Quentin, 
prisoners  of  poverty.  There  are  many,  very  many 
such  men,  who  would  be  given  their  paroles  tomorrow 


CONCLUSION.  283 


if  they  could  raise  the  sum  required.  As  it  is  twenty- 
five  dollars  must  be  deposited  with  the  authorities, 
and  there  are  other  expenses  which  bring  the  total  up 
to  between  fifty  and  sixty  dollars.  Thus  these  men 
are  really  being  punished  for  the  crime  of  being  poor. 
Whatever  this  work  may  realize  will  be  set  aside  by 
the  Prison  Reform  League  as  a  fund  for  their  relief. 


THE    STRAIT    JACKET. 

A  favorite  method  of  punishing  convicts  for  trivial  offenses.     Th« 

victim,   if  laced  too  tightly,   may  be  crippled  for  life. 

See   page   74. 


APPENDIX 

The  following  lecture  has  been  delivered,  with 
slight  alterations,  in  San  Francisco,  Oakland,  at  Stan- 
ford University,  in  Sacramento,  Seattle,  Pomona,  and 
several  times  in  Los  Angeles  and  its  vicinity,  during 
1908  and  1909,  by  Col.  Griffith  J.  Griffith,  the  prin- 
cipal organizer  of  the  Prison  Reform  League. 

In  1907- '08- '09  Col.  Griffith  visited  numerous  pris- 
ons in  the  United  States,  from  Salem,  Ore.,  to  Sing 
Sing,  N.  Y.,  as  well  as  several  in  Mexico,  in  order  to 
gather  information.  His  statements  never  have  been 
successfully  contradicted. 

The  lecture  is  appended  in  the  hope  that  it  may 
prove  of  service  to  speakers  dealing  with  this  great 
theme,  since  it  presents  in  condensed  form  many  of 
the  facts  and  arguments  that  are  given  with  greater 
amplification  in  the  main  body  of  this  work: 


The  greatest  problem  of  human  interest  from  the 
dawn  of  history  is  one  of  relations.  Our  relations  to 
the  perfect  ethical  spirit  and  our  relations  to  each 
other  are  the  chief  questions  with  which  men  have 
concerned  themselves  through  all  the  ages.  Modern 
education  aims  to  solve  this  problem. 

In  this  short  lecture  I  will  endeavor  to  treat  some 
features  of  this  great  problem  bearing  on  organized 
society's  attitude  toward  the  offender.  The  fact  that 
I  have  read  thousands  of  pages  of  matter  written  by 
many  authors,  and  thus  looked  into  the  very  depth  of 


286 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

human  knowledge  on  this  subject,  together  with  my 
personal  experience  and  observation,  are  my  reasons 
for  saying  that  I  could  talk  for  many  days  on  crimes, 
punishment  and  reform  without  exhausting  my  re- 
sources. 

Within  the  last  two  years  I  have  traveled  over 
15,000  miles  in  the  United  States  and  Mexico  and  vis- 
ited many  prisons,  from  Oregon  to  New  York,  the 
most  notable  of  which,  in  the  City  of  Mexico,  con- 
tained 5000  men  and  700  women  prisoners.  For  com- 
parison allow  me  to  state  that  both  San  Quentin  and 
Folsom  prisons  have  but  twenty-eight  female  prison- 
ers, thanks  to  and  God  bless  American  motherhood. 

From  personal  experience,  observation  and  knowl- 
edge I  am  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  discipline 
of  the  average  prison  hardens,  degrades  and  is  a  per- 
petual exhibition  of  cruel,  arbitrary  power. 

Treatment  that  puts  an  impassable  gulf  between  the 
prisoner  and  society  will  never  make  a  convict  better. 
Men  in  prison,  much  like  those  out  of  prison,  can  be 
made  better  and  they  can  be  made  worse,  according 
to  their  treatment,  environments  and  opportunities. 

Man  is  not  a  commodity.  He  is  not  a  compound 
of  mathematical  quantities  or  chemical  gases.  He  has 
a  heart  and  a  brain,  and  between  these  spring  a  thous- 
ant  needs  and  emotions.  He  has  the  instinct  of  love. 
He  is  conquered  by  justice  and  any  plan  for  the  meas- 
urement of  man  which  leaves  out  justice  will  and 
must  be  a  failure. 

I  wish  I  could  make  it  so  convincingly  clear  that 
the  civilized  world  could  fully  realize  it,  that  a  pris- 
oner can  never  be  reformed  by  being  wronged.     Did 


APPENDIX.  287 


two  wrongs  ever  make  a  right  or  vengeance  make  a 
man  or  woman  better? 

In  many  of  the  penitentiaries  there  are  instruments 
of  torture,  and  now  and  then  a  convict  is  crippled  for 
Hfe  or  murdered.  Inspections  and  investigations  go 
for  naught  because  the  testimony  of  a  convict  is  un- 
believed.  He  is  generally  prevented  by  fear  from 
telling  his  wrongs,  for  if  he  speaks  he  is  not  be- 
lieved —  he  is  regarded  as  less  than  a  human  being, 
and  so  the  imprisoned  suffer  and  remain  without  rem- 
edy. Every  noble  or  manly  feeling,  every  effort 
toward  real  reformation  is  trampled  under  foot,  so 
that  when  the  convict's  time  is  out  there  is  little  left 
on  which  to  build.  He  has  been  cruelly  humiliated 
to  the  last  degree,  and  his  spirit  has  been  so  long  bent 
or  crippled  by  authority  and  fear  that  even  the  desire 
to  stand  erect  has  faded  from  his  mind.  The  keepers 
know  that  they  are  safe,  because  no  matter  what  they 
do  the  convict,  when  released,  will  not  tell  the  story  of 
his  wrongs,  for  if  he  desires  to  conceal  his  shame  he 
must  also  hide  their  guilt.  Thus  it  is  plain  that,  no 
matter  what  happens  in  the  average  prison,  there  is 
no  redress  for  the  convict. 

Before  proceeding  further  with  generalities  I  wish 
to  read  a  few  paragraphs  from  the  "  Oldest  Code  of 
Laws  in  the  World."  These  laws  were  written  in  the 
Babylonian  language  on  a  stone  monument  of  black 
diorite  and  found  about  five  years  ago  among  ruins 
which  had  been  buried  for  thousands  of  years. 

Some  historians  claim  that  this  code  of  laws  was  m 
existence  fully  a  thousand  years  before  Moses  was 
born ;  and  Dr.  H.  Winkler  says :  "  It  is  the  most  im- 
portant  Babylonia   record  which  has  thus   far  been 


288 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

brous:ht  to  light."  This  code  was  translated  into 
English  by  Prof.  C.  H.  W.  Johns,  M.  A.,  Queen's 
College,  Cambridge. 

Witchcraft  is  the  first  crime  on  the  list  and  is  de- 
scribed as  follows: 

"  If  a  man  weave  a  spell  and  put  a  ban  upon  a  man, 
he  that  wove  the  spell  shall  be  put  to  death." 

"  For  perjury  and  subornation  of  witness  —  death." 

"  For  burglary  committed  in  a  temple  or  palace  — 
death." 

"  For  a  '  fence '  or  receiver  of  stolen  goods  — 
death." 

"  A  judge  who  shall  render  an  unjust  decision  —  he 
shall  pay  twelvefold  and  forever  lose  his  seat." 

"  Arson  —  burn  to  death." 

"  Adultery  —  culprits  shall  suflfer  a  gentle  death  by 
drowning." 

"  If  a  man  has  stolen  an  ox,  sheep  or  ass,  a  pig  or 
ship,  he  shall  pay  thirtyfold.  If  he  is  a  poor  man,  he 
shall  render  tenfold.  If  a  thief  has  naught  to  pay  he 
shall  be  put  to  death,"  (No  chance  for  the  poor  man 
in  those  days.) 

"  If  the  owner  of  lost  property  has  not  brought  wit- 
nesses knowing  his  lost  property,  he  has  lied,  has 
stirred  up  strife  and  shall  be  put  to  death." 

"  If  a  man  has  stolen  the  son  of  a  freeman,  he  shall 
be  put  to  death." 

"  If  a  man  has  harbored  a  fugitive  and  has  not  pro- 
duced him  on  demand  of  the  commandant,  the  owner 
of  the  house  shall  be  put  to  death." 

"  If  a  man  conceals  a  slave  in  his  house  and  after- 
ward the  slave  has  been  seized  in  his  house,  that  man 
shall  be  put  to  death." 


APPENDIX. 


"  If  a  man  has  broken  into  a  house,  one  shall  kill 
him  before  the  breach  and  bury  him  in  it." 

"  If  a  man  has  carried  on  brigandage  and  has  been 
captured  that  man  shall  be  put  to  death." 

"  If  the  brigand  has  not  been  caught,  the  man  who 
has  been  despoiled  shall  recount  before  God  what  he 
has  lost,  and  the  city  and  governor  in  whose  land  and 
district  the  brigandage  took  place  shall  render  back  to 
him  whatsoever  was  lost." 

"  If  a  man  has  struck  his  father,  his  hands  shall  be 
cut  off." 

"  If  a  man  shall  cause  the  loss  of  a  gentleman's  eye, 
his  eye,  one,  shall  cause  to  be  lost." 

"  If  he  shall  shatter  a  gentleman's  limb,  one  shall 
shatter  his  limb." 

"  If  a  man  has  made  the  tooth  of  a  man  that  is  his 
equal  to  fall  out,  one  shall  make  his  tooth  fall  out." 

"  If  a  man  has  struck  the  strength  of  a  man  who  is 
great  above  him,  he  shall  be  struck  in  the  public  as- 
sembly with  sixty  strokes  of  a  cowhide  whip," 

Section  218.  "  If  a  doctor  has  treated  a  gentleman 
for  a  severe  wound  with  a  lancet  of  bronze,  and  has 
caused  the  gentleman  to  die,  or  has  opened  an  abscess 
of  the  eye  for  a  gentleman  with  the  bronze  lancet,  and 
has  caused  the  loss  of  the  gentleman's  eye,  one  shall 
cut  off  his  hands." 

Section  219.  "  If  a  doctor  has  treated  the  severe 
wound  of  a  slave  of  a  poor  man  with  a  bronze  lancet 
and  has  caused  his  death  he  (the  doctor)  shall  render 
slave  for  slave." 

"If  a  woman  hates  her  husband  and  has  said 
'  Thou  shalt  not  possess  me ',  one  shall  inquire  into 
her  past  what  is  her  lack,  and  if  she  has  been  econom- 


290  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

ical  and  has  no  vice,  and  her  husband  has  gone  out 
and  greatly  belittled  her,  that  woman  has  no  blame; 
she  shall  take  her  marriage  portion  and  go  off  to  her 
father's  house.  But  if  she  has  not  been  economical, 
a  goer  about,  has  wasted  her  house,  has  belittled  her 
husband,  that  woman,  one  shall  throw  her  into  the 
waters." 

For  some  thirty  stated  different  crimes  death  was 
the  penalty.  There  are  many  more  interesting  para- 
graphs in  this  little  8o-page  book,  but  owing  to  crude- 
ness  and  vulgarity  some  are  unfit  for  reproduction  be- 
fore this  modern  mixed  audience. 

This  and  other  books  bearing  on  human  progress, 
including  the  Bible,  convincingly  show  that  "  an  eye 
for  an  eye  "  and  "  a  tooth  for  a  tooth  "  was  not  only 
the  Mosaic  law  and  custom  during  Moses'  time,  but 
long  before  and  clear  down  through  the  ages  which 
followed  until  the  Father  of  Mercies  appeared  on 
earth  and  taught  human  beings  the  blessedness  of 
mercy  and  the  divinity  of  compassion  and  "  to  love 
one  another "  and  "  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 
He  showed  that  the  Fatherhood  of  God  necessarily 
involves  the  Brotherhood  of  Man. 

Notwithstanding  these  noble  sentiments,  barbarous 
and  cruel  laws  continued  to  exist,  and  the  scientific 
reformation  of  criminals  never  legally  crystallized  un- 
til thirty-five  years  ago,  when  the  Elmira  reforma- 
tory was  built.  Since  then  I  will  say  that  among  the 
most  significant  signs  of  human  progress  is  the  mod- 
ern treatment  of  prisoners,  and  especially  the  youth- 
ful offenders,  as  contrasted  with  the  barbarous  and 
inhuman  method  of  dealing  with  them  throughout  the 
centuries. 


APPENDIX.  29T 


The  law  establishing  the  Elmira  reformatory  has 
been  in  its  main  features  the  law  adopted  in  several 
states  for  the  reformatories  within  their  bounds.  The 
same  aims,  methods  of  government  and  applications 
of  principles,  with  due  modification  and  developments, 
have  been  followed.  The  fundamental  points  of  this 
new  penological  system  may  be  now  briefly  outlined. 
Its  bedrock  is  the  incontrovertible  fact  that  the  vio- 
lator of  law  can  be  reformed,  and  that  the  most  ef- 
fective way  to  protect  society  is  to  reform  the  crim- 
inal. Reformation,  and  not  retribution,  therefore, 
should  be  the  chief  end  of  punishment.  The  indeter- 
minate sentence  is  one  of  the  most  important  elements 
in  securing  this  reformation.  A  determinate  sentence 
is  "  absurd  in  principle  and  grossly  wrong  and  in- 
jurious in  practice."  To  bring  about  the  results 
aimed  at,  it  was  held  that  the  reformatory  should  fur- 
nish well  ventilated  and  properly  heated  rooms  or 
cells,  sufficient  food,  full  educational  facilities,  manual 
training,  trade  instruction,  military  drills,  well  se- 
lected libraries,  appropriate  recreation,  with  active 
and  moral  religious  influences.  These  are  actually 
the  forces  at  work  today  in  all  the  reformatories  of 
the  United  States.  An  analysis  shows  that  in  addi- 
tion to  general  intellectual  education  more  than  forty 
trades  and  industries  are  taught  in  the  several  insti- 
tutions under  consideration. 

The  board  of  managers  of  the  New  York  state  re- 
formatory at  Elmira  say  there  has  not  been  a  case  of 
flogging  for  nearly  nine  years,  nor  putting  in  irons 
for  nearly  six  years,  and  for  the  past  five  years  there 
has  been  no  form  of  corporal  punishment  whatever. 
The    board    briefly    explains    the    situation    in    these 


292  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

words :  "  It  has  simply  gone  out  of  use,  no  apparent 
necessity  for  it  having  arisen."  Comparing  the  old 
with  modern  methods,  the  said  board  in  its  report 
used  this  language :  "  We  believe  that  the  product 
of  the  present  system  is  superior  to  the  product  of  the 
old,  in  about  the  same  proportion  that  a  horse  trained 
by  Rarey  is  better  than  one  broken  by  a  cowboy." 

At  this  reformatory  a  newcomer  enters  the  second 
grade,  from  which,  by  good  records,  he  may  advance 
to  the  first  and  by  bad  records  fall  back  to  the  third. 
There  have  been  treated  over  15,000  to  date,  and  dur- 
ing the  year  nearly  3000  inmates  are  treated,  whose 
ages  range  from  16  to  30  years.  Several  trades  are 
taught,  and  in  both  trade  and  school  work  great  care 
is  taken  not  to  give  the  prisoner  tasks  beyond  his 
physical  and  mental  capacity  and  equal  care  to  make 
such  tasks  so  as  to  call  forth  the  best  work  that  is  in 
him.  When  a  prisoner  is  said  to  have  violated  any  of 
the  rules  he  is  entitled  to  a  full  and  fair  trial  by  the 
board  of  managers,  who  say  in  their  report  that 
"  neither  time  nor  trouble  is  spared  to  make  these  in- 
vestigations thorough  and  impartial.  The  accused 
has  as  nearly  an  absolute  '  square  deal '  as  the  wisdom 
of  the  officials  involved  enables  them  to  bring  about." 

Prison  laws  and  methods  are  vastly  ahead  of  ours 
in  nearly  all  the  following  states,  all  of  them  within 
the  last  fourteen  years  having  passed  new  or  added  to 
their  parole  laws:  Oregon,  South  Dakota,  Indiana, 
Virginia,  Arizona,  New  York,  Ohio,  Massachusetts, 
Connecticut,  Kansas,  Kentucky,  Washington,  Illinois 
and  Idaho. 

In  addition  to  the  improved  conditions  made  by  the 
parole  system  in  the  above-named  states  the  indeter- 


APPENDIX.  293 


minate  sentence  law  is  now  in  force  in  some  form  in 
all  the  following  states:  New  Hampshire,  Connecti- 
cut, Colorado,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Kansas,  Massachu- 
setts, Michigan,  Minnesota,  New  Jersey,  New  York, 
Ohio,  Wisconsin  and  Pennsylvania.  Moreover  the 
modern  physical  and  mental  training  afforded  in  many 
of  the  institutions  in  these  states,  patterned  mamly 
after  Elmira,  N.  Y.,  has  not  reached  California  yet. 
Why  should  this  be  behind  any  state  in  the  line  of 
progress  ? 

The  indeterminate  sentence  plan  embodies  as  one  of 
its  basic  principles  that  the  individual  offender  and  not 
the  crime  shall  finally  determine  the  length  of  confine- 
ment or  detention  that  is  necessary  to  reform  him. 
The  principles  involved  in  the  indeterminate  sentence 
and  the  parole  system  are  logically  one  and  the  same 
and  are  inseparable.  Probation  or  parole  cannot 
scientifically  be  applied  to  the  convicted  person  except 
through  the  indeterminate  sentence.  California  is  far 
behind  other  states  in  modern  methods  and  the  law- 
makers during  this  session  of  the  legislature  should 
remedy  some  of  these  defects. 

A  study  of  codes  on  the  one  hand  and  of  sentences 
on  the  other  reveals  an  amazing  amount  of  contradic- 
tion and  rank  injustice  in  the  application  of  penalties. 
For  this  inequality  and  injustice  the  indeterminate 
sentence  furnishes  the  necessary  relief.  Instead  of 
the  codemaker  or  judge  declaring  when  a  man  shall 
come  out  of  prison,  it  puts  the  main  responsibility  of 
deciding  that  question  with  the  prisoner  himself. 
How  can  any  judge,  though  he  be  learned  and  "  as 
wise  as  Solomon  ",  in  the  brief  space  of  time  usually 
allotted   by   a  trial   court,  determine   accurately   and 


294  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

justly  the  time  it  would  take  to  reform  the  prisoner? 
Is  it  possible  under  these  unfavorable  environments, 
with  such  limited  opportunity  to  study,  weigh  and  an- 
alyze the  prisoner's  character,  to  measure  his  stature 
mentally,  physically  and  morally  and  pronounce  just 
sentence?  Can  it  be  done  (except  in  rare  instances) 
without  working  a  great  injustice?  Then  why  send 
him  to  prison  for  a  fixed  term?  It  may  take  but  a 
short  time  to  cure  him,  or  it  may  take  a  lifetime. 
How  is  that  judge  to  know?  Society  demands  that 
he  be  cured  or  permanently  secured ;  but  punishment 
as  such  has  no  place  in  the  Christian's  plan  of  regen- 
eration. The  indeterminate  sentence  will  eventually 
compel  an  entire  change  in  prison  methods. 

The  indeterminate  sentence  provides  for  commit- 
ment to  prison  the  same  way  as  an  insane  person  who 
is  sent  to  the  hospital  for  the  insane  until  cured.  This 
has  been  done  in  other  states  and  can  be  done  here 
with  comparative  justice  to  all.  The  prison  should 
be  prepared  for  it  and  properly  managed  and  its  in- 
terests controlled  by  a  competent  supervising  board, 
before  whom  each  prisoner  shall  appear  personally 
from  time  to  time  as  occasion  warrants,  to  be  heard 
in  his  own  behalf.  The  board  in  control  should  have 
the  power  of  a  court  of  rehabilitation  and  in  justice  to 
and  for  the  better  protection  of  society  every  prisoner 
should  be  tried  by  that  body  before  being  liberated. 

Up  to  October  31,  1909,  commitments  to  the  two 
California  penitentiaries  aggregated  31,337.  On  the 
date  named  there  were  1818  convicts  actually  confined 
in  San  Quentin  and  102 1  in  Folsom,  making  a  total 
of  2839.  More  than  one-third  of  these  are  from 
Southern  California. 


APPENDIX.  295 


San  Qnentin  has  300  cells  that  contain  two  or  more 
men,  and  thirteen  rooms  (including  two  hospitals) 
each  of  which  has  from  fifteen  to  more  than  200  pris- 
oners. There  are  only  396  single  cells,  so  that,  even 
with  the  800  new  single  cells  promised. next  year,  the 
antiquated  disease  and  crime-breeding  pens  will  be 
greatly  overcrowded. 

Modern  methods  and  California  have  always  been 
strangers,  as  is  most  evident  in  that  corral  of  horrors 
known  as  San  Quentin  prison. 

Warden  J.  W.  Tompkins  constantly  reminded  his 
flock  that  they  were  "  sent  there  to  be  punished  ",  and 
when  he  ruled  over  the  1600  helpless  prisoners  con- 
fined behind  the  gloomy  walls  of  San  Quentin  many 
sad  scenes  were  enacted.  To  lay  the  foundation  prop- 
erly for  one  I  will  affirm  that  which  is  generally  con- 
ceded, that  a  prisoner  is  not  totally  depraved  if  he  has 
love  in  his  heart,  and  the  great  majority  of  the  San 
Quentin  prisoners  showed  their  love  by  decorating 
their  little  homes  with  photographs  or  pictures  of 
some  loved  one  (allowed  them  under  former  manage- 
ment), and  some  would  have  several  members  of  their 
family  hung  up  in  neat  little  frames.  Some  prisoners 
would  lovingly  point  out  these  pictures  and  say: 
"  This  is  a  picture  of  my  dear  father  and  mother  ", 
or  "  This  was  my  good  wife ",  or  "  daughter ",  or 
"  my  sweet  sister  ",  and  sometimes  add,  "  and  this  one 
was  my  loving  sweetheart ",  etc.,  etc.  Many  prison- 
ers are  serving  long  sentences,  nearly  200  being  life 
termers,  and  many  of  them  keep  their  little  homes 
(cells)  as  neat  and  inviting  as  possible ;  many  had  lit- 
tle boxes  with  locks  attached,  in  which  to  keep  little 
things  that  to  them  were  cherished  treasures. 


296  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


One  morning  when  the  prisoners  were  all  at  work, 
Warden  Tompkins  called  his  men  together  and  or- 
dered them  to  "  go  through  "  every  cell  and  take  ev- 
ery picture,  frame  and  all,  and  also  every  box  and  all 
books  (except  library  books)  and  everything  else  that 
would  be  near  and  dear  to  the  hearts  of  the  unfortu- 
nate prisoners  and  place  them  in  the  fire. 

A  great  bonfire  was  kept  burning  for  several  days 
until  he  supposed  everything  was  consumed.  The 
bonfire  was  in  full  view  of  the  laundry  in  the  middle 
yard,  and  one  day  as  I  passed  by  an  old  prisoner,  who 
was  forced  to  feed  the  flames,  called  me,  and,  after 
making  sure  that  no  one  saw  him,  handed  me  a  book, 
saying,  "  For  God^s  sake,  colonel,  save  this  Bible  ", 
and  I  did  so,  and  had  the  book  rebound  in  Los  An- 
geles. It  bears  the  name  of  a  prominent  divine  who 
sent  it  to  a  life-term  prisoner. 

In  order  not  to  tire  you  I  will  relate  but  two  or 
three  more  cases  of  cruelty.  A  very  intelligent  pris- 
oner, who  was  one  of  the  best  musicians  in  their  band, 
was  working  in  the  machine  shop  when  Warden 
Tompkins  sent  for  him  and  said,  "  There  is  dope 
(morphine)  in  the  prison,  and  unless  you  tell  us  all 
about  it  I  will  put  you  in  the  jacket  and  have  you 
squeezed  until  you  do." 

The  prisoner  answered  politely  by  assuring  the 
warden  and  those  present  that  he  not  only  had  no 
knowledge  of  any  in  the  prison  but  would  not  know 
it  if  he  saw  it.  In  spite  of  this  frank  and  truthful 
denial  the  warden  ordered  the  captain  of  the  yard  to 

lace in  the  jacket  tight  and 

keep  him  there  until  he  tells."  The  poor,  helpless 
man  was  tortured  there  for  140  hours,  or  nearly  six 


APPENDIX.  297 


days  and  nights,  and  then  released  only  because  he 
was  about  to  die.  The  unfortunate  man  is  living  in 
Los  Angeles  now,  crippled  for  life,  and  in  one  of  his 
letters  to  me  he  used  this  language :  "  Fortunately 
for  me,  I  was  a  powerful  man,  of  wonderful  endur- 
ance, but  this  treatment  has  left  me  a  physical  wreck, 
unable  to  do  a  full  day's  work  at  my  trade  and  turned 
loose  on  the  world  physically  handicapped,  with 
nothing  before  me  but  a  life  of  sickness." 

Every  intelligent  man  in  San  Quentin  knew  that 
this  man  was  being  tortured,  and  yet  no  one  dared 
even  say  a  kind  word  for  him. 

You  may  ask  what  prevented  the  prisoners  from 
making  some  demonstration  of  sympathy?  My  an- 
swer is,  they  dared  not  for  fear  of  being  shot.  It 
was  said  that  Warden  Tompkins  had  125  men  under 
him,  walking  arsenals  with  five  rapid-fire  Gatling 
guns,  108  breech-loading  Winchester  rifles,  60  double- 
barrel,  loaded  shotguns,  72  rapid-fire  revolvers  and 
12,000  rounds  of  ammunition  at  his  command. 

One  more  such  case:  Joe  Fiddler  had  been  a  pris- 
oner several  years  and  his  term  was  drawing  to  a 
close,  he  having  but  a  few  more  weeks  to  serve.  He 
was  a  "  spooler  "  in  the  jute  mill  and  worked  on  the 
same  machine  alongside  of  me.  And  although  crim- 
inally inclined  he  did  his  task  so  well  that  I  never 
knew  or  heard  of  any  complaint.  Joe  Fiddler  was 
naturally  a  strong,  healthy  man,  yet  he  feared  one 
of  the  prison  guards  over  us,  because  at  some  prior 
time  he  had  in  some  trivial  way  offended  him.  One 
evening  after  we  had  both  finished  our  day's  task  and 
were  on  our  way  to  join  the  4  o'clock  line  from  the 
mill  he  was  suddenly  called  back  by  another  guard, 
and  after  a  mock  trial  immediately  sent  to  the  dun- 


298  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

geon    and    tortured    for    twenty-four    hours    in    the 
straight  jacket, 

I  heard  his  moans  and  groans  and  pitiful  cries  for 
mercy  —  it  never  came  —  mercy  and  the  Tompkins 
officials  were  strangers.  As  soon  as  he  was  able  to 
walk  about  the  third  morning,  while  we  were  form- 
ing the  breakfast  line,  poor  Joe,  carrying  his  coat  and 
vest  in  front  of  him,  hailed  me.  It  was  a  cold  morn- 
ing and  I  inquired  why  he  did  not  put  his  coat  and 
vest  on.  He  painfully  said  he  could  not,  his  shoulders 
had  been  crippled  in  the  jacket.  After  I  succeeded 
in  getting  his  clothes  on  his  shivering  form  he  gave 
me  the  most  pitiful  account  of  how  he  was  deliberately 
"  jobbed  "  into  the  jacket  by  guard  No.  2  in  order  to 
satisfy  guard  No.  I's  revenge. 

Another  scene,  several  weeks  later,  occurred,  when 
an  Italian  who  could  not  understand  EngHsh  refused 
to  do  hard  work  with  others  on  the  hill  removal  job, 
and  because  he  would  not  walk  meekly  into  the  "  soli- 
tary "  for  the  jacket  torture  four  guards  grabbed  him, 
two  at  his  arms  and  two  at  his  legs,  dragging  him  in 
the  direction  of  the  dungeon.  His  pitiful  cries  for 
mercy  were  so  loud  that  he  attracted  both  the  war- 
den and  the  so-called  "  captain  of  the  yard."  The 
latter  ran  to  him,  placed  both  hands  on  his  throat, 
and  choked  the  helpless  man  into  silence  while  he  was 
being  dragged  to  further  punishment.  I  never  saw 
the  poor  man  again.  Hundreds  of  prisoners  witnessed 
that  scene,  and  though  their  sympathies  were  aroused 
they  dared  not  make  a  demonstration,  fearing  the 
armed  guards  on  the  wall  and  in  the  towers. 

This  injustice  was  not  committed  in  the  black  hole 
of  Calcutta;  neither  was  it  a  part  of  the  lurid  story 
of  the  "  Tower  of  London  " ;  it  had  no  part  or  place 


APPENDIX.  299 


in  the  tradition  of  the  "  Dungeons  of  Chillon  " ;  it  was 
not  one  of  the  many  heinous  crimes  recorded  in  the 
history  of  the  *'  Bridge  of  Sighs  " ;  the  ensanguined 
acts  of  the  "  gladiatorial  arena  "  and  the  "  Crypts  of 
the  Tiber  "  were  hidden  in  the  purple  hazes  of  van- 
ished years  long  ere  this  San  Quentin  outrage  was  en- 
acted. Yet  who  shall  say  that  as  a  sample  of  "  man's 
inhumanity  to  man "  this  California  prison  horror 
might  not  have  consistently  happened  in  any  of  the 
before  mentioned  places  of  human  torture? 

The  reports  of  cruelty  and  debauchery  that  have 
emanated  persistently  at  intervals  from  the  female 
ward  are  too  revolting  for  me  to  relate  them. 

Just  across  the  bay  and  only  a  short  distance  from 
where  the  San  Quentin  atrocities  are  committed,  mod- 
ern justice  is  seated  in  her  court;  the  youth  of  the 
common  schools  are  committing  to  memory  the  text 
of  the  CHARTER  OF  RIGHT ;  Old  Glory  waves  to 
the  national  trio  of  Fraternity,  Charity  and  Loyalty; 
while  the  good  people  in  over  200  churches  in  nearby 
cities  are  teaching  the  precepts  of  the  Lowly  Nazarene ; 
and  my  belief  is  so  sincere  in  the  good  intentions  of 
all  these  agencies,  that  I  trustingly  hope  it  is  only 
necessary  to  TURN  ON  THE  LIGHT  to  bring  about 
needed  reforms. 

The  causes  of  crime  are  deep,  ancient  and  persist- 
ent. Let  us  live  in  hope  that  some  day  these  causes 
may  be  removed.  The  annual  cost  of  crime  in  this 
country  is  estimated  at  $5,000,000,000  to  $6,000,000,- 
000,  and  the  number  of  men  in  prison  in  the  United 
States  is  over  100,000.  Between  80  and  90  per  cent. 
of  them  committed  crimes  against  property.  By  look- 
ing deeply  into  the  subject  it  is  plainly  evident  to 
every  investigator  that  there  are  many  causes  for  crime 


300  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

outside  of  the  inherent  weakness  of  men.  Long  ago 
it  was  said  that  the  number  of  crimes  rose  and  fell 
in  accord  with  the  price  of  bread,  and  whenever  work 
was  scarce  crimes  were  plentiful.  Poverty,  or  the 
faulty  and  unfortunate  circumstances  of  our  social  and 
economic  system,  account  for  a  large  percentage  of 
crimes  in  this  country,  in  my  opinion.  To  illustrate, 
G.  A.  England,  M.  A.,  in  the  October  (1908)  Arena, 
quotes  statistics  showing  that  in  the  years  immedi- 
ately following  dreadful  financial  panics,  when  pov- 
erty was  at  its  worst,  killing  reached  its  highest  per- 
centage. "  Following  the  terrible  panic  of  1893-4,  kill- 
ings were  more  common  than  at  any  time  before  or 
since  (1895,  10,500),  a  ratio  of  i  in  6575  of  popula- 
tion, the  worst  record  in  the  history  of  the  country." 
Again,  let  us  look  at  these  facts :  December  25,  1906, 
there  were  191  prisoners  in  the  Tombs,  New  York,  62 
of  them  awaiting  trial,  129  awaiting  the  action  of  the 
grand  jury;  and  541  cases  standing  on  the  calendar. 
The  corresponding  figures  for  December  25,  1907, 
after  the  panic  had  struck,  were  323 ;  238 ;  85  and 
1271.     Comment  is  superfluous. 

G.  Frank  Lydston,  M.  D.,  in  his  latest  book,  "  Dis- 
eases of  Society ",  holds  disease  as  responsible  for 
many  crimes.  Several  instances  came  under  my  ob- 
servation of  the  most  convincing  nature.  How- 
ever, with  many  sociologists,  I  agree  that  if  but  half 
the  money  and  energy  used  in  prosecuting  crime  and 
persecuting  people  was  applied  to  finding  employment 
for  idle  men,  conditions  would  greatly  improve. 

According  to  records  published  in  1907,  by  the 
American  Prison  Association,  the  commitments  to 
prison  in  this  country  average  184  in  each  100,000  of 
population;  the  ratio  being  55.7  for  Alabama;  80.5 


APPENDIX.  301 


for  Illinois;  while  California  is  in  the  lead  with 
523.4  per  100,000  population.  Do  not  these  figures  in- 
dicate something  wrong  witlj  both  our  laws  and  sys- 
tem? Iowa  had  two  state  prisons  and  no  reformatory 
for  minors  or  first  offenders.  One  of  the  prisons  in 
1907  was  transformed  into  a  state  reformatory,  and 
the  parole  law  has  been  adopted  and  made  applicable 
to  both  institutions. 

With  modern  laws  and  methods  and  the  right  men 
managing,  from  70  to  90  per  cent,  of  our  criminals 
can  be  changed  into  law-abiding  citizens.  They  are 
doing  it  in  Indiana,  and  why  not  in  California?  Is  it 
not  a  distinct  and  substantial  gain  both  to  society  and 
the  state?  Does  it  not. transform  a  liability  into  an 
asset,  and  a  transgressor  of  the  law  into  a  defender 
of  the  law? 

The  late  Samuel  J.  Barrows,  of  international  prison 
fame,  after  visiting  San  Quentin  last  fall,  used  this 
language :  "  Our  prison  methods  are  a  relic  of  the 
early  days  and  ought  to  be  exhibited  in  a  museum. 
Our  duty  to  the  offender  is  to  be  kind  to  him  and  to 
help  him  reform.  We  must  put  aside  the  old  law  of 
retaliation  and  substitute  that  of  redemption  of  the 
prisoner.  The  scientific  application  of  mercy  is  the 
only   resource." 

Foremost  among  the  great  prison  reform  leaders 
in  the  United  States  today  are  Hon.  Z.  R.  Brockway, 
Dr.  Spaulding,  Rev.  Samuel  Fallows,  Frederick  How- 
ard Wines,  Amos  J.  Butler,  J.  F.  Scott.  These  and 
all  modern  thinkers  concur  in  the  methods  Dr.  Bar- 
rows advocates.  It  is  not  difficult  to  do  our  duty  to 
our  superiors  or  to  those  we  love,  but  to  do  our  duty 
to  those  who  have  wronged  us  is  surely  a  rare  virtue, 


302  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


because  in  savage  times  we  sought  revenge  for  a 
wrong,  and  today  we  have  the  same  spirit  of  retalia- 
tion in  all  our  laws  against  criminals. 

The  weakest  place  in  our  prison  system  in  this  state 
is  the  lack  of  proper  training  on  the  part  of  prison 
officials.  No  one  acquainted  with  the  facts  will  doubt 
that.  I  studied  conditions  from  all  viewpoints,  and 
I  can  sincerely  say  from  personal  experience  and 
knowledge  that  the  officers  generally  managing  such 
institutions  are  as  sadly  in  need  of  training  as  the 
inmates  are  of  discipline. 

In  England  they  have  training  schools  exclusively 
for  prison  officials,  while  Baden,  Prussia,  and  other 
German  states  have  institutes  at  which  all  prison  em- 
ployes must  attend.  At  these  institutes  different 
courses  are  taught,  some  for  the  higher  officials,  in- 
cluding wardens,  inspectors,  etc.,  and  also  for  state's 
attorneys  and  the  judges  of  criminal  courts,  as  well  as 
for  the  subordinate  officials,  the  instructors  being  uni- 
versity professors,  officials  of  the  department  of  justice 
and  the  higher  prison  officials. 

The  nearest  approach  in  this  country  to  the  insti- 
tutes referred  to  are  our  civil  service  laws  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  a  few  other  states,  which  resulted  in  se- 
curing a  better  class  of  men,  thereby  giving  a  per- 
manency of  prison  service.  Is  it  not  possible  for  some 
progressive,  noble  institute  of  learning,  like  the  Leland 
Stanford  University,  to  set  a  pace  in  this  part  of  the 
world  by  affording  such  training? 

Over  the  entrance  gate  at  San  Quentin  are  these 
words :  "  He  who  enters  here  leaves  all  hope  behind." 
If  this  legislature  turns  the  prison  into  a  reformatory 
such  sentiments  may  change  with  modern  conditions. 


APPENDIX.  30:> 


Instead,  we  may  even  read :  "  Love  is  the  fulfilling 
of  the  law." 

Within  San  Quentin's  gloomy  dungeon,  situated 
about  twenty  feet  below  the  upper  yard,  are  probably 
a  dozen  dark  cells,  and  made  secure  to  the  walls  are 
several  short,  heavy  chains  about  two  feet  long.  Some 
of  the  prisoners  are  still  living  who  sadly  tell  their 
experiences  while  fastened  to  these  chains  for  fifty- 
nine  days  and  nights.  You  and  I  can  well  imagine 
the  physical,  mental  and  moral  improvement  such 
treatment  would  suggest.  Rather  do  we  not  shudder 
at  the  utter  wreck  of  body,  mind  and  spirit  such  an 
infamous  torture  would  produce? 

The  doctors  there  lacked  experience  and  were  heart- 
less and  cruel  —  each  had  a  hobby..  Dr.  Casey's  cure- 
all  was  called  a  "bombshell"  (a  painful  cathartic), 
while  Dr.  Summers,  his  successor,  used  a  32-inch 
rubber  hose  and,  a  gallon  of  water  for  every  sickness. 

Many  tuberculous  patients  are  among  the  prisoners, 
but  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  segregate  them  from 
those  who  are  free  of  that  dreaded  white  plague. 

Of  the  1800  and  odd  prisoners  not  one  who  has  been 
confined  in  San  Quentin  for  any  length  of  time  but 
can  tell  sad  stories  of  humiliations  and  cruelties  in  prac- 
tice there  ever  since  its  organization  in  1859.  Those 
old  men,  returned  for  the  fifth,  sixth  or  tenth  time,  also 
vividly  picture  the  brutalities  of  former  years  prac- 
ticed there,  when  it  was  a  common  thing  to  see  prison- 
ers stripped  naked,  fastened  to  a  large  post  and  beaten 
until  the  victim's  blood  would  form  a  pool  around  his 
feet,  and  when  untied  he  would  fall  helplessly  on  the 
ground,  weak  from  the  loss  of  blood ;  while  others  por- 
tray death  scenes  of  a  revolting  nature. 


304  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

In  San  Quentin  tobacco  is  the  coin  of  the  realm,  and 
anything  that  one  prisoner  buys  of  another  is  paid  for 
with  so  many  little  sacks  or  plugs  of  tobacco.  Under 
present  rules,  every  male  prisoner  is  entitled  to  one 
ration  of  tobacco  supplied  by  the  state  every  vi^eek.  In 
the  past,  on  stated  dates,  prisoners  were  allowed  to 
purchase  through  the  commissary  department  an  extra 
quantity  of  tobacco  if  they  had  cash  on  deposit  with 
the  warden.  In  this  way  prisoners  would  accumulate 
several  extra  rations,  and  it  was  a  common  thing  to  hear 
of  tobacco  bets  made  on  handball  or  baseball  games 
or  prize  fights,  etc.,  and  as  many  as  200  sacks  of  to- 
bacco would  be  placed  in  somebody's  possession  await- 
ing the  decision.  The  officers  in  charge  would  fre- 
quently get  a  clew  through  one  of  their  many  stool 
pigeons  and  suddenly  discover  a  rule  forbidding  any 
prisoner  to  have  in  his  possession  more  than  one  ra- 
tion of  tobacco  at  one  time,  and  confiscate  all  the  sur- 
plus by  taking  it  away  from  the  prisoner.  Later,  the 
same  tobacco  would  be  again  sold  to  the  prisoners,  and 
the  guards  and  officers  would  thus  get  a  small  part  of 
their  "  perquisite  "  or  prison  graft. 

Laughter  belongs  exclusively  to  humanity,  and  al- 
though surrounded  by  sadness,  gloom  and  misery  some 
of  the  prisoners  make  great  effort  to  cultivate  cheer- 
fulness and  sometimes  mirthfulness.  In  connection 
with  this  tobacco  steal  some  amusing  things  could  be 
seen.  One  day  the  big  guard  in  a  jute-mill  found  a 
prisoner  with  a  quantity  of  tobacco  in  his  possession 
and  the  officer  made  him  put  it  in  a  barley  sack,  throw 
it  over  his  shoulder  and  walk  alongside  of  the  wise 
gazabo  officer  toward  the  captain's  office. 

There  are  from  700  to  800  men  working  in  the  jute- 
mill,  and  as  the  officer  and  his  man  and  load  walked 


APPENDIX.  305 


through,  other  prisoners  quickly  cut  a  hole  in  the 
bottom  of  the  barley  sack,  and  before  the  two  had 
passed  throug-h  the  mill  all  their  tobacco  was  not 
only  appropriated,  but  securely  hidden.  When  the 
guard  discovered  the  tobacco  all  gone  he  realized  the 
joke  was  on  himself  and  he  allowed  the  prisoner  to 
return  to  his  work. 

Another  officer  on  a  holiday  was  watching  from  a 
distance  across  the  upper  yard  a  group  of  prisoners 
shooting  "  craps  "  for  tobacco,  and  when  the  officer 
reached  the  crowd  one  of  them  must  have  had  in  his 
possession  not  less  than  twenty  or  more  sacks  and 
plugs.  The  officer,  who  was  a  nervous  and  excitable 
man,  ordered  the  prisoner  to  put  up  his  hands,  and 
while  he  searched  and  sleuthed  into  the  prisoner's 
pockets  for  the  tobacco  other  prisoners  picked  the 
officer's  pockets  and  relieved  him,  so  that  when  the 
hunt  was  finished  the  officer  was  the  most  surprised 
of  all,  wJiile  the  many  prisoners  who  were  eyewit- 
nesses laughed   heartily. 

Within  the  state  prison  walls  of  Folsom  and  San 
Quentin  are  some  hardened,  naturally  bad  and  des- 
perate men,  but  the  great  majority  are  not  bad  men. 
The  average  prisoner  is  not  so  radically  wicked  as 
he  is  pitifully  weak.  Many  are  accidental  and  un- 
willing victims  of  circumstances  over  which  they  had 
no  control ;  others  did  something  construed  to  be 
an  infraction  of  the  law,  yet  the  victim  was  not  crim- 
inal at  heart.  Still  others,  on  the  impulse  of  the  mo- 
ment, did  something  that  placed  them  within  the  pale 
of  the  law  and  would  make  good  citizens  if  properly 
treated. 

I  spent  two  whole  months  at  Sacramento  last  ses- 
sion advocating  the  passage  of  three  important  bills. 


3o6  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

One  was  the  indeterminate  sentence  bill,  another  was 
a  better  parole  measure  and  the  third  the  segregation 
and  grading  of  prisoners.  Thanks  to  the  intelligent 
legislature,  all  three  passed  both  houses  unanimously. 
The  governor,  however,  who  claims  he  had  400  bills 
to  consider  within  ten  days  after  adjournment  of  that 
body,  failed  to  sign  them. 

From  personal  knowledge  and  observation  at  San 
Quentin  prison  during  the  two  years  of  1905  and 
1906  I  am  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  our  system 
is  largely  to  blame.  Instead  of  being  beneficially  in- 
structive San  Quentin,  as  conducted  in  the  past,  is 
positively  a  school  for  crime,  where  the  youth  from 
14  to  21  daily  and  constantly  come  in  contact  with 
hardened  and  degenerate  criminals. 

There  ought  never  to  be  more  than  one  prisoner 
in  a  cell,  for  many  reasons,  and  all  cells  should  be 
constructed  so  as  to  admit  of  sunshine  and  pure  air. 
When  San  Quentin  prison  was  constructed  these  con- 
ditions were  entirely  ignored  and  are  still  overlooked, 
as  can  be  proved,  for  there  are  but  few  single  cells. 
The  majority  of  the  inmates  are  herded  together  in 
rooms  containing  two,  three,  five,  ten,  fifteen,  twenty, 
thirty  and  forty,  and  there  is  one  room  now  filled 
with  more  than  two  hundred  prisoners,  who  spend 
from  twelve  to  fifteen  hours  nightly  together  there. 

Under  these  conditions,  when  they  are  thus  herded 
together,  what  is  there  to  prevent  the  expert  criminal 
from  conducting  post-graduate  courses  in  crime? 
Prisons,  city,  county  and  state,  should  be  in  every  way 
sanitary,  and  its  inmates  ever  protected  against  all 
disease-breeding  germs.  While  society  has  and  should 
have  every  legal  and  moral  right    to    be    protected 


APPENDIX.  307 


against  its  enemies,  what  right  have  we  to  rob  the 
prisoner  of  God's  pure  air  and  sunshine? 

A  great  majority  of  these  men,  having  long  been 
fed  on  prison  slops,  are  physically  run  down,  leave 
San  Quentin  with  only  $5  and  a  brand  on  the  body 
in  the  shape  of  a  suit  of  clothes  costing  $2.95,  which 
every  policeman  and  every  detective  knows.  If  there 
be  a  time  when  an  unfortunate  man  needs  a  helping 
hand  it  is  then.  He  was  not  allowed  to  see  a  state 
newspaper  in  prison,  consequently  he  does  not  know 
where  to  turn  to  look  for  work,  and  that  $5  is  not 
going  to  last  very  long. 

He  emerges  from  the  bastile,  and,  as  I  have  said 
before,  physically  and  mentally  handicapped.  He  is 
indeed  a  pariah.  He  is  refused  work,  and,  if  suc- 
cessful in  getting  a  job,  men  refuse  to  work  with  him. 
His  mind  and  will  power  having  been  dwarfed  and 
paralyzed  through  the  brutal  treatment  of  untrained 
overseers,  he  is  in  a  sad  and  pitiable  condition  to 
face  the  world.  Health  shattered,  courage  gone,  he 
has  a  shifty  bearing,  a  bitter  distrust  of  fellowmen, 
and  the  loss  of  ambition  to  win  back  a  place  in  life. 
He  is  frequently  subjected  to  open  scorn  and  always 
to  secret  distrust.  Mankind  shuns  him.  Detectives 
and  police  watch  and  hound  him.  If  a  crime  is  com- 
mitted he  is  arrested  on  suspicion  and  frequently 
locked  up  for  days  or  weeks  without  evidence. 

In  line  with  modern  ideas  the  good  people  of  San 
Francisco  have  recently  erected  a  home  where  lib- 
erated or  paroled  prisoners  will  be  helped  practically, 
where  bed  and  meals  may  be  had  free  and  a  fresh 
start  in  life  given  the  helpless  ones.  It  is  being  con- 
ducted by  the  society  known  as  the  California  Prison 
Commission.     These  societies  in  Europe  are  supported 


3o8  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

by  government  aid,  as  well  as  by  private  subscription. 
Their  friendly  supervision  is  infinitely  better  than 
alms  giving,  and  the  value  of  such  organizations  has 
been  conspicuously  shown  in  the  great  reduction  of 
recommitments  (recidivists)  where  best  established. 

Similar  societies  are  doing  good  work  in  Chicago, 
Philadelphia  and  other  eastern  cities  in  this  country. 
England  has  ninety  and  France  fifty  such  societies. 
Germany,  Holland  and  Denmark  have  many,  while 
Switzerland  leads  them  all  with  less  prisoners  per 
capita  than  any  other  country.  She  has  a  branch  so- 
ciety wherever  a  prison  is  located,  whose  members 
form  the  acquaintance  of  incarcerated  men  and  when 
the  latter  are  liberated  extend  a  helping  hand  and  sur- 
round the  helpless  one  with  moral  influence. 

Out  of  a  total  population  of  1021  now  confined  in 
Folsom  prison,  342  are  recidivists,  and  there  are  387 
recidivists  in  San  Quentin.  Can  anybody  believe  that 
with  a  fair  show  and  a  square  deal  this  enormous 
percentage  of  men  would  return  to  crime?  Certainly 
not.  Besides,  it  is  very  easy,  in  most  cases,  to  con- 
vict a  man  who  has  served  a  previous  term  in  prison. 
And  if  there  be  an  object  in  the  conviction,  officers  of 
the  law  can  be  found  who  are  loud  in  their  denuncia- 
tion of  the  "  ex-con  "  and  in  some  cases  deliberately 
manufacture  evidence  out  of  whole  cloth  in  order  to 
convict  a  man  of  a  crime  he  never  committed. 

I  know  a  man  in  San  Quentin  prison  serving  a 
life  sentence  who  is  absolutely  innocent  of  the  crime 
for  which  he  is  paying  the  penalty.  Sixteen  hundred 
dollars'  reward  paid  to  detectives  is  the  secret  behind 
his  conviction,  together  with  the  fact  of  his  being  an 
"  ex-con."  The  judge  who  sentenced  him,  the  sheriff 
of  the  county  where  he  was  convicted,  the  people  who 
paid  part  of  the  reward  and  all  the  prison  officials  for 


APPENDIX.  309 


fourteen  years  deeply  sympathized  with  him  and  they 
all  know  that  my  statement  is  positively  true,  and  yet 
the  man  remains  in  prison.  Every  intelligent  pris- 
oner in  San  Quentin  knows  him  and  is  aware  of  the 
facts  and  the  truth  of  my  statement.  Several  others 
are  confined  there,  not  because  they  are  criminals,  but 
because  they  are  poor.  I  ask  not  favor,  but  fair  play 
for  these  helpless  men.  Does  not  the  Bible  say: 
"  Open  thy  mouth  and  plead  the  cause  of  the  poor 
and  needy?"    Proverbs  31-9. 

I  am  deeply  in  earnest  about  these  reforms,  and  my 
knowledge  comes  from  experience,  and  is  ample  and 
profound.  I  am  not  discussing  these  matters  for 
either  wealth  or  notoriety  —  I  have  both. 

I  slept  in  room  A  with  forty-eight  others  for  four- 
teen months,  right  over  the  dungeon,  where  most  of 
the  torturing  is  done.  Hundreds  of  times  I  heard 
pitiful  cries  for  mercy,  followed  by  human  moans 
and  groans.  My  heart  was  sick  many  times,  yet  I 
was  helpless.  See  what  I  have  seen  and  hear  what 
I  have  heard  and  you,  too,  would  be  moved  to  action. 

A  thousand  prison  visits  would  fail  to  give  you  the 
knowledge  that  I  possess.  My  heart  reaches  out  in 
deep  sympathy  to  my  helpless  fellow-men  and  espe- 
cially to  those  legally  dead  yet  buried  alive  and  tor- 
tured behind  the  gloomy  walls  of  San  Quentin.  Un 
der  the  fatherhood,  of  God  are  we  not  all  brethren? 
And  oh !  how  sad  to  think  of  the  good  men  whose 
time  must  be  spent  in  slavery  and  misery  for  the  state 
when  in  them  lies  so  much  of  the  stuff  which  marks 
the  true  man! 

I  know  that  among  them  are  victims  of  circum- 
stances, over  which  they  had  no  control,  and  as  I 
saw  14-year-old  boys  and  many  young  men  enter  the 
bastile,  the  very  picture  of  health  and  manly  vigor, 


310 CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS         

Others  with  locks  gray  and  faces  marked  by  furrows 
of  care,  and  some  bent  and  infirm,  on  the  very  brink 
of  eternity,  I  could  not  help  but  contemplate  the  sad- 
ness of  it  all.  Knowing  these  things,  why  should  I 
not  plead  for  the  needy  and  helpless? 

It  is  the  blessed  privilege  of  hope  which  makes  us 
all  forbear,  and  every  breath  of  human  cheer  opens  to 
the  prisoner's  heart  the  hope  of  succor.  Were  I  pos- 
sessed of  the  eloquence  of  a  former  great  statesman 
I  would  say  much  on  "  Crimes  Against  Criminals  ". 
However,  the  bitter  things  I  say  about  officials  spring 
from  neither  hate  nor  malice,  but  are  meant  to  be  used 
as  a  lever  for  the  uplift  of  mankind.  I  have  no  desire 
to  be  revengeful,  for  verily  we  should  all  be  tempered 
with  mercy  when  we  sit  in  judgment  on  our  fellows, 
because  we  do  not  yet  realize  the  mixture  of  good  and 
evil  that  is  in  every  man.  If  we  cultivated  more  di- 
vine love  and  less  hatred  this  world  could  be  made  a 
veritable  paradise. 

I  have  talked  with  murderers,  train  and  stage  rob- 
bers, burglars,  pickpockets,  hobos,  yeggmen  and  oth- 
ers guilty  of  nearly  every  crime  known,  yet  I  never 
found  a  prisoner  but  could  easily  be  convinced  that  a 
criminal  career  does  not  pay.  A  sane  young  man  so 
convinced  can  be  reformed. 

In  conclusion,  if  you  are  convinced  that  I  have 
looked  into  the  very  depths  of  human  knowledge 
bearing  on  "  crime  punishment  and  reform ",  allow 
me  in  closing  to  suggest  briefly  that  while  ten,  twenty 
and  thirty-year  terms  look  hard  to  face,  yet  I  am  not 
so  opposed  to  long  sentences  as  I  am  intensely  in  fa- 
vor of  giving  the  prisoner  a  chance  to  reform,  aided 
by  the  most  modern  methods. 


APPENDIX.  311 


These  methods  are  embodied  in  the  juvenile  court 
laws,  probation,  the  establishment  of  state  schools  of 
industry,  to  take  the  place  of  prisons  for  boys  and 
girls,  adult  reformatories  instead  of  penitentiaries,  the 
indeterminate  sentence  and  the  parole  system. 

The  Prison  Reform  League,  on  behalf  of  which  I 
speak,  is  working  for  the  abolition  of  capital  pun- 
ishment, as  being  the  quintessence  of  the  philosophy 
of  revenge ;  reform  of  the  administration  of  the  crim- 
inal law,  and  restraint  to  be  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
protecting  society  and  reforming  the  offender. 

Again  I  say,  without  fear  of  successful  contradic- 
tion, that  if  all  states  would  do  away  with  the  fee  sys- 
tem, apply  the  "  Golden  Rule  "  method,  as  it  is  now  in 
operation  in  Cleveland,  O.,  in  the  making  of  arrests, 
and  convert  penitentiaries  into  modern  reformatories, 
under  civil-service  rules,  adopting  also  the  indeter- 
minate sentence  and  pursuing  a  generous  policy  in 
the  granting  of  paroles,  crime  would  decrease,  society 
would  be  far  better  protected  than  it  is  at  present,  and 
the  expenses  of  running  the  government  would  be  re- 
duced enormously. 

The  average  citizen  has  neither  the  time  nor  the 
inclination  to  investigate  these  matters.  Fortunately 
I  have  both,  and  I  expect  to  use  my  knowledge  for 
the  lasting  good  of  my  fellow-men. 

Let  us  all  make  an  effort  to  do  something  for  help- 
less humanity.  Is  it  not  a  duty  we  owe  to  the  pris- 
oner, to  the  state  and  to  society?  In  the  name  of 
justice  I  appeal  to  you  as  citizens  of  this  great  state 
to  place  California  toward  the  front  in  the  onward 
march  of  civilization. 

*     *    * 
11 


312  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

The  objects  of  the  Prison  Reform  League,  which 
issues  this  book,  are  stated  thus  in  the  blanks  it  sends 
out  for  signature:  (i)  The  abolition  of  capital  pun- 
ishment, that  the  state  may  no  longer  swell  the  list  of 
murders  by  becoming  itself  a  murderer.  (2)  Re- 
form of  the  administration  of  criminal  law,  a  task 
that  the  United  States  has  not  undertaken  since  it  be- 
came a  nation.  (3)  Restraint  to  be  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  protecting  society  and  reforming  the  offender. 

There  are  no  fees  or  dues,  expenses  being  met  en- 
tirely by  voluntary  contributions,  and  officers  receive 
no  salaries.  The  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the 
league  is  Col.  Griffith  J.  Griffith,  whose  address  is 
443  S.  Main  St.,  Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  and  a  branch  of- 
fice is  maintained  in  Chicago. 

There  are  at  present  about  4000  members  in  Cali- 
fornia, and  many  signatures  have  been  obtained  in 
Illinois  and  other  states.  As  yet  the  league  has  de- 
voted itself  far  more  to  the  creation  of  an  indignant 
public  opinion  than  to  organization  work.  It  has 
been  issuing  to  more  than  three  hundred  papers 
weekly  a  syndicate  letter  dealing  with  the  various 
phases  of  the  subject  contained  in  this  book,  and  has 
sought,  above  everything,  during  the  short  period  it 
has  been  in  existence  (it  was  formed  the  latter  part 
of  April,  1909)  to  create  a  strong  literary  movement 
that  should  turn  the  light  remorselessly  on  present 
conditions.  With  this  end  in  view  it  has  maintained 
an  extensive  correspondence  with  men  and  women 
throughout  the  country  who  are  recognized  as  capa- 
ble workers  and  in  sympathy  with  its  aspirations. 


INDEX 


Alabama — Death  penalty  33 

Fee  system   128 

Executions  and  lynchings 216 

Juvenile  delinquents 267 

Alcoholism    214 

Altgeld,  John  P. — Cost  of  crime 12 

Chicago  police  148 

American  Inst,  of  Criminal  Law  and  Criminology 38 

American  Law  Review — Capital  punishment 31 

American  Prison  Association — Congress  in  Richmond,  Va. .   124 

Condemns  fee  system   174 

Congress  in  Seattle,  Wash 183 

Report  on  jails   192 

Chicago  congress    232 

Probation    239 

Wardens  at  congresses  274 

Commitment  statistics 300 

American  Review  of  Reviews — Capital  punishment 31 

Crimes  of  violence 210 

Antelope  Valley  Gazette — ^Fee  system  criticized 179 

Arena — Homicide  statistics   204 

Panics  and  homicides  300 

Atlantic   Constitution — 'Lease   System 119 

Auctions — Of  prisoners  in  South 118 

Profits  from  127 

Babylon — Oldest    code    of    laws 287 

Barr,  Marquis — Favors  indeterminate  sentence 249 

Barrows,  Isabel  C. — Report  of  Seattle  congress 274 

Barrows,  Samuel  J. — Juvenile  criminals 250 

Retaliation  301 

Barry,  Richard — ^New  Slavery  in  South 125 

Bench  and  Bar — "Third  Degree" 160 

Bingham,  T.  A. — Politics  in  police  force 4,  i6g 

Bull  Rings    46 

Bushnell,  C.  J. — Cost  of  crime 11 

Increase  of  213 


314  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


Butler,  Amos  W — 'On  discharged  prisoners 219 

Indeterminate  sentence  248 

Byrd,  Col. — Report  on  convict  camps 118,  120 

Byrnes,  Thomas — "Third  Degree" 159 

California — Fee  system   175  et  seq. 

Commitment  percentage    189,  301 

Suicides    213 

Insanity    214 

Parole   statistics    241 

Discharged  convicts 242 

Indeterminate  sentence  245 

Penitentiary  statistics 294 

Censorship  by  police  171 

Census — Crime   statistics    li 

Central  Law  Journal — Illegal  arrests   162 

Century  Magazine^ — ^London  and  New  York  police 3 

Chaplin,  Heman  W. — Useless  arrests 201 

Charities  and  the  Commons — Juvenile  courts 262 

Judge  Lindsey  265 

Chester,  111. — 'Tortures  in  penitentiary 48 

Chicago — Homicides  and  executions 30 

Crime  in   149 

Chicago  Daily  News — 'Crimes  of  violence 209 

Chicago  Tribune — ^Homicides  and  convictions 32 

Murders  and  homicides   206 

Suicides    214 

Clarke,  Geo.  H. — Georgia's  chain  gang 117,  122 

Cleland,  McKenzie — Useless  arrests 202 

Discharged  convicts    234 

Probation    236  et  seq. 

Collinson,   Joseph — "Facts   About   Flogging" 141 

Colorado — Capital  punishment  32 

Connecticut — Homicides  and  executions  30 

Prison  reforms 225 

Probation    233 

Cooley,  Harris  K. — Cleveland  Farm  Colony 277 

Cosmopolitan — New  slavery  in  South  125 

Criminal  codes,  not  uniform  249 

Curtis,  N.  M. — ^Brutalities  of  code 33 

De  Lacy,  Wm.  H. — Reforms  at  Washington 234 

Death  rate  in  convict  camps  120 


INDEX  315 

Devlin,  Robt.  T.,  report  by 259 

District  of  Columbia — Bill  to  abolish  death  penalty 29 

For  support  of  families 234 

Ellis,  Havelock — "The  Criminal"   7 

Elmira,  N.  Y.,  Reformatory,  probation  record 240 

Flogging  abandoned    291 

England — Crime  statistics   8 

Penal  history  of  20 

Training  schools  302 

England,  G.  A. — ^Homicide  statistics 204 

Panics  and  homicides  300 

Everybody's  Magazine — "The  Beast  and  The  Jungle" 186 

Extortion — By  police 163  et  seq. 

Feagin,  Judge  N.  B. — 'Juvenile  courts 267 

Ferri,  Enrico — '"Criminal  Sociology"  228 

Flagler,  H.  M. — Peonage  in  South 125 

Flogging  advocated  by  warden 141 

Folks,  Homer — Probation  239 

"Folsom,  Cal. — Report  by  warden 275 

Fort,  Justice  Franklin  J. — Favors  indeterminate  sentence. .  249 

Forward,  The,  prostitution  in  Chicago 166 

France — Guillotine  restored 28 

Free   Speech — How   suppressed 171 

Galbreath,  C.  B. — Lynchings  and  death  penalty 216 

Gates,  W.  A. — ^Jail  conditions   199 

Gaynor,  Wm.  J. — Lawlessness  of  police. •. 151 

Arbitrary  power  159 

Georgia — Death  penalty  33 

Murders  205 

Executions  and  lynchings 216 

George  State  Prison  Commission,  report  by 122 

Graft — In  San  Quentin 304 

In  Sing  Sing 133 

Griflfes,  James  T. — Report  on  execution  23 

Griffith,  Mrs.  Hester  T.— Fee  System 183 

Female  department  at  San  Quentin 112 

Hampton's  Magazine — Torture  in  prisons 43 

Flogging 141 

Hanly,  J,  Frank — Indeterminate  sentence 247 

Hart,  H.  H. — 'Wrongful  detentions  198 


3i6  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 

Henderson,  C.  R. — Doubts  increase  of  crime lo 

Holland — 'Death  penalty  abolished  28 

Hooper,  Alexander — Conditions  in  Georgia 121 

Hooper  and  Bechdolt,  "9009" 134 

Howard  Central  Association,  Chicago 38 

Howe,  Frederic  C. — Cleveland  Farm  Colony 277  et  seq. 

Hoyle,  John  E.,  warden  of  San  Qiientin,  Cal. 281 

"Humming  Bird"  torture 47 

Hurley,  T.  D. — Juvenile  court  laws 267 

Idaho — Homicides  and  executions  31 

Illinois — iDeath  penalty  opposed 29 

Homicides  and  executions  30 

Asylums  for  insane  criminals  and  feeble  minded. ...     42 

Prison  reforms   224 

Independent — Facts  about  lynching 218 

Juvenile  delinquents  264 

Indiana — 'Fee  system  182 

Prison  reforms   224 

Indeterminate  sentence  248 

IngersoU,  Robert  G. — Torture 37 

Insanity,  increase  of 214 

Iowa,  executions  in 29 

Italy — 'Death  penalty  abolished 28 

Japan — Treatment  of  prisoners 89,  113 

Jefferson  City,  Mo. — Flogging  in  penitentiarj^ 141 

Johnson,  C.  P. — Police  usurpation 154 

Johnson,  Tom  L. — Reforms  in  Cleveland,  0 240,  277 

Judges  in  United  States  and  England 207 

Juvenile  court  record 267 

Kansas — 'Death  penalty  not  inflicted 28,    31 

Prison  reforms 224 

Kearney,  Neb. — School  for  juvenile  offenders 259 

Kelley,    Joseph — "Thirteen    Years    in    the    Oregon    Peni- 
tentiary"       136 

Kennan,  Geo. — Vice  in  San  Francisco 168 

Kentucky — ^Convicts  in  128 

Juvenile  courts 263 

Kohler,  Frederick,  Cleveland,  O. — Chief  of  police 150 

Life  in  Sing  Sing,  by  "No.  1500" 34,  132,  141 


INDEX  317 


Lindsey,  Ben  B. — Fee  system  186 

Juvenile  delinquents 252  et  seq. 

Immigrants  and  crime 266 

Lombroso,  Cesare,  Teachings  of 230 

London — jails  I99 

Murder  statistics  212 

Los  Angeles^ — ^Fee  system 14,  173  et  seq. 

Rewards  for  arrests 185 

"Sweating"  charged  i53 

Homicide  statistics  211 

Los  Angeles  Daily  Times — Texas  investigation 48 

Wrongfully  confined   149 

Jails  criticized 188 

Parole  statistics 241 

Louisiana — 'Death  penalty 33 

"Third  Degree"  161 

Juvenile  court 267 

Lydston,  G.  Frank — Increase  of  crime. 6,  9 

Cost  of II 

Capital  punishment 25 

Prison  officials 276 

Disease  and  crime 300 

Maine — iDeath  penalty  abolished 28 

Conviction  percentage  31 

Probation  233 

Massachusetts — ^Capital  punishment  29 

Homicides  and  convictions 30 

Juvenile  delinquents   189,  251 

Probation    233,  251 

Civil  service   302 

Massachusetts  Prison  Ass'n. — Cost  of  crime 12 

Reclamation  of  prisoners  250 

Marshall,  Thos.  R. — Crime  a  disease 248 

Maryland — -Death  penalty 33 

Prisoners'  Aid  Ass'n 219 

McAdoo,  Wm. — London's  police 145,  212 

McCann,  Edward — Police  inspector 166 

McClaughry,  R.  W. — Ft.  Leavenworth  penitentiary 137 

McClure,  S.  S. — 'Increase  of  lawlessness 10 

Tammany    16,  168,  272 

Murder  rate   206 


3i8  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


McClure's  Magazine — Articles  by  S.  S.  McClure....   lo,  i68 

Geo.  Kennan i68 

T.  A.  Bingham 169 

Crime  in  Chicago  236 

McDonald,  Arthur — Report  on  crime 4 

Michigan — Death  penalty  abolished   28 

Conviction  percentage  31 

Prison  reforms 224 

Probation    233 

Minnesota — Penitentiary  at  Stillwater 280 

Mirror,  St.  Louis,  Mo. — Outrages  by  police 156 

Mississippi — "Sweat  box"  in 160 

Executions  and  lynchings   216 

Missouri — Probation  233 

"Modern   Prison   Systems" 275 

Morrison,  W.  D. — ^"Crime  and  its  Causes" 7 

Moss,  Frank — ■Police  corruption   3 

Needless  arrests 147 

National  Probation  League  38,  210,  233 

New  Hampshire — Executions  29 

New  Jersey — Probation 233 

New  York  City — Prison  reforms 223 

Crime  and  panics  300 

New  York  State — Homicides  and  executions 30 

New  York  State  Prison  Commission — Fee  system 185 

Nineteenth  Century — Peonage  in  United  States up 

North   American  Review — Police   corruption 3 

Needless  arrests 147 

Police  lawlessness  151 

Norway — Capital  punishment 28 

Ohio — Homicides   and   convictions 30 

Prison   reforms    225 

Probation    233 

Oregon — Reforms  in  penitentiary 279 

Outlook — Georgia  and  the  chain  gang 118 

Lynching 121 

Berkshire  Industrial  Farm 261 

Cleveland  Farm  Colony 277 

Palm,  Andrew— "The  Penalty  of  Death" 31 

Palmer,  Lewis  E. — Youthful  criminals 188 

Pennsylvania — Bill  aimed  at  capital  punishment 30 


INDEX  319 

Peonage,  white  men  held  in 126 

Pontiac,  111. — 'Report  on  reformatory 38 

Portugal — Death  penalty  abolished 28 

Potter,  Bishop  H.  C. — Letter  to  Mayor  Van  Wyck 164 

Prison  Reform  League — Fund  for  convicts 282 

Principles-  and  aims 312 

Recidivists 308 

Reddy,  Judge  M.  G.,  on  fee  system 179 

Rhode  Island — Death  penalty  abolished 28 

Conviction  percentage    31 

Roosevelt,  Theodore  H.,  refuses  pardon 35 

Russell,  C.  E — Prison  conditions 43 

Whipping  post  142 

Russia — Executions    27 

Sager,  Judge  Arthur  N. — On  Missouri  penitentiary 220 

Discharged   convicts    233 

Probation    238 

Schoff,  Mrs.  Hannah  Kent — Juvenile  delinquents 256 

Scientific  School — Position  of 227  et  seq. 

>  Seely,  Fred  L. — Lease  system 123 

Shipley,    Maynard — Capital   punishment 31 

Sloan,  Dr.  Julian  W. — 'Jail  at  Richmond,  Va 198 

Smith,  Eugene — Doubts  increase  of  crime li 

Spalding,  Warren  F. — ^Juvenile  delinquents 264 

Spectator— "Third   degree"    158 

St.  Louis,  Mo. — Illegal  arrests  154 

Standard  Oil  Co. — Work  for  as  peons 125 

States — Status  compared 219  et  seq. 

Stefifens,  Lincoln — Vice  in  Pittsburg 165 

Stephen,  Sir  James  Fitz- James — Rights  of  police.- 151 

Stonaker,  C.  L. — Death  penalty  in  Colorado 32 

Strait-jacket     74  et  seq.,  82 

Suicide — statistics    213,  214 

Survey,  The — Vice  in  Chicago 167 

Juvenile   courts    268 

Switzerland — Capital  punishment    28 

Taft,  Wm.  H. — On  capital  punishment 31 

Taylor,  Graham — Vice  in  Chicago 167 

Taylor,  Robert  L. — Juvenile  courts 267 

Terrell,  M.  C. — Peonage  in  United  States 119 


320  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS 


Texas — Treatment    of   convicts 48 

Executions  and   lynchings 216 

Thomas,  W.  H. — Homicide  statistics 205 

Tolstoy,   Leo    N. — Criticizes    Stolypine 27 

Turner,  Geo.  Kibbe — White  slave  traffic 166 

Upton,  Geo.  P. — Facts  about  lynching 218 

Vardaman,  J.  K. — Prison  reforms 267 

Vermont — Probation    in    , 233 

Wardens — Meet  in  secret    274 

Washington — Reforms   in  penitentiary    280 

Improvements  by   279 

Water  cure   45 

Wells,  David  A. — On  increase  of  crime 9 

V/hitlock,  Brand — "Turn  of  the  Balance" 46,  et    seq. 

Indeterminate    sentence    243 

WSnes,  Frederick  A. — "Punishment  and  Reformation"..  9 
Wisconsin — Death    penalty    abolished 28 

Conviction  percentage    31 

Prison   reforms    224 

Wolfer,    Henry — Minnesota   warden 281 


TO     BE    ISSUED    SHORTLY 

"GRIFFITH 
PARK" 


What  it  would  mean  to  the 
happiness  of  Los  Angeles  if 
this  magnificent  domain  of 
more  than  3015  acres  were 
used  as  it  was  intended  to 
be  used.     *.*     *.'     *.' 


B-^  the  Donor 


GRIFFITH  J.    GRIFFITH 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A    000  757  448    6 


